R v DAF

[2004] QCA 368

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

R v DAF [2004] QCA 368

PARTIES:

R
v
DAF
(applicant)

FILE NO/S:

CA No 237 of 2004
DC No 3269 of 2003
DC No 1460 of 2004

DIVISION:

Court of Appeal

PROCEEDING:

Sentence Application

ORIGINATING COURT:

District Court at Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

8 October 2004

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

22 September 2004

JUDGES:

Jerrard JA, White and Jones JJ
Separate reasons for judgment of each member of the Court, each concurring as to the order made

ORDER:

Application for leave to appeal against sentence dismissed

CATCHWORDS:

CRIMINAL LAW – APPEAL AND NEW TRIAL AND INQUIRY AFTER CONVICTION – APPEAL AND NEW TRIAL – APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE – APPLICATIONS TO REDUCE SENTENCE – WHEN REFUSED – OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON - SEXUAL OFFENCES – where applicant convicted on pleas of guilty to a substantial number of sexual offences committed against six different children over a period of 10 and a half years – where significant aggravating features - whether sentence manifestly excessive

R v SAG [2004] QCA 286; CA No 55 of 2004, 6 August 2004, followed
R v Dugdale [1991] CCA 251; CA No 272 of 1991, 13 December 1991, followed

COUNSEL:

A J Rafter SC for the applicant
R G Martin for the respondent

SOLICITORS:

Legal Aid Queensland for the applicant
Director of Public Prosecutions (Queensland) for the respondent

1. JERRARD JA:  DAF has applied for leave to appeal against concurrent terms of imprisonment, the longest being 12 years, imposed on him on 25 June 2004 in the District Court upon his pleas of guilty to a variety of charges alleging the commission of sexual offences against six different children over a period of 10 and a half years.  One child was his step-daughter, one was his son, one was his step-daughter’s friend, one was his niece, one was his then de-facto partner’s younger sister, and one was a friend of that younger sister. 

1. There were two discrete groups of offences, and those in the first group were committed while he lived with a Ms T.  She is the mother of A, DAF’s step-daughter, who was the complainant child in counts 1 – 3 and count 8 of a 15 count indictment presented against DAF.  The offences DAF admitted committing against A by his pleas were one count of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with that child between 24 May 1992 and 27 November 1994, when A was under the age of 12 and in his care; he also admitted by that plea having committed rape upon A during that relationship.  A could recall at least 10 acts of penile intercourse during the period covered in the indictment.  DAF entered separate pleas to two counts of having raped A in that same period.  A was aged about four and a half years old when first raped by him, and was between four and six years of age during the period in which that relationship was maintained and when the second offence of…