R v Francois
[2015] VSC 452
•28 August 2015
| IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA | Not Restricted |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
S CR 2014 0149
| THE QUEEN |
| v |
| ADRIAN FRANCOIS |
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JUDGE: | T FORREST J |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
DATES OF HEARING: | 12 June, 17 June, 28 August 2015 |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 28 August 2015 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | R v Francois |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2015] VSC 452 |
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CRIMINAL LAW – Sentence – Intentionally cause injury – plea of guilty – Joint criminal enterprise – Did not inflict any blows on the victim – Told co-accused to stop - Suffers chronic paranoid psychosis – Profoundly deaf – Sentenced to a two-year community corrections order – standard CCO conditions – additional conditions of 150 hours unpaid community work, assessment and treatment in relation to drug use, mental health assessment and treatment, and offending behaviour programs.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Crown | A. Grant | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | H. Spowart | Victoria Legal Aid |
HIS HONOUR:
Adrian Francois, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of intentionally causing injury to Barry Robinson on 4 February 2014. On that day you were recruited by Karl Ravenhorst to assist him in confronting Mr Robinson and causing injury to him. Karl Ravenhorst had agreed with Sharee Hastings to lure Mr Robinson to an isolated location. Sharee Hastings had an acrimonious relationship with Mr Robinson. She asked Ravenhorst to ‘sort out’ Mr Robinson. It is against that brief background that Mr Ravenhorst telephoned you at 2.46pm on 4 February 2014. He arranged for you to attend at his address at Station Street, Ferntree Gully. You smoked some ice with him.
While you were at Mr Ravenhorst’s house Kaitlin and Sharee Hastings arrived there. By your plea you accept that you agreed with Ravenhorst to be present whilst Ravenhorst assaulted Robinson to the point of injury, and to assist him if necessary. I am not satisfied you knew of the detail of the plan to lure Robinson to Yellingbo, but you knew enough to know that he was to be assaulted somewhere and you knew your role was to be on hand should Ravenhorst require assistance during that assault.
You and Ravenhorst left the Ferntree Gully address in a car driven by Ben Aimsley. Ravenhorst had with him a black baseball bat. Sharee and Kaitlin Hastings also left that address and travelled in convoy with you to Macclesfield Road, Yellingbo. Both cars stopped at a location on Macclesfield Road and Ravenhorst and you got out of Aimsley’s vehicle. Ravenhorst retrieved his baseball bat from the boot of that car and then both of you entered the rear of the blue Ford driven by Sharee Hastings. Ravenhorst placed his bat in the rear interior of that car. Sharee Hastings then drove two further kilometres down Macclesfield Road. She parked the car facing the road in an isolated area and with its bonnet open. Shortly before parking the car Hastings said to Ravenhorst, ‘We’ll pull over here, he thinks I’m broken down’. I am not satisfied you heard this remark. I should explain this: you are profoundly deaf andon this day you were without your hearing aids.
At about 5.15pm, you exited the car with the other occupants. You and Ravenhorst pulled up the hoods on your hoodies and hid behind a tree not far from the apparently stricken blue Ford. The two Hastings women hid a little further away. Time went by. At 5.35pm, Sharee Hastings telephoned Robinson again and the trap was set. At about 6.00pm, he arrived. He parked his vehicle and approached the Falcon calling out Sharee Hastings’ name. He saw you and Mr Ravenhorst and ran from you. Ravenhorst said, ‘You like raping girls, you dog’ and ran after him. He struck him with the baseball bat several times. Robinson fell to the road surface. You yelled out ‘Karl, stop’ or words to that effect. I accept that from that moment on you withdrew from the agreement to injure Barrie Robinson and that you offered Karl Ravenhorst no further assistance. Karl Ravenhorst dragged Mr Robinson to a ditch by the side of the road and continued to strike him to the head and body many times.
After this brutal attack ceased you all retreated to the blue Falcon. Ms Hastings shut the bonnet and you departed the scene. It is accepted by the prosecution that the initial volley of blows (with which you were complicit) caused injury but not serious injury. I am unable to determine which precise injuries were sustained in this initial assault.
The police interviewed you on 22 April 2014. You provided the police with a mixture of truth and relatively guileless self-serving lies. As you are aware, as a result of the overall assault Mr Robinson suffered profound injuries. He was lucky to survive, although he remains cognitively disabled. He has lost most of his working capacity, has difficulty speaking and understandably is very depressed.
As I have said, you are not responsible for all those injuries or even many of them, but you are jointly responsible for the first volley of strikes with the bat that occurred on the roadway.
I accept that your criminality or moral culpability lies well below that of Ravenhorst or Sharee Hastings. I accept that you were there as ‘back up’ for Ravenhorst. You struck no blows to Mr Robinson and your offending ceased when you tried to persuade Mr Ravenhorst to stop. I consider that your withdrawal from the agreement and your positive attempt to stop Ravenhorst are to your credit in any assessment of your moral culpability.
You have had a hearing disability all your life. As I have said, without your hearing aids you are profoundly deaf. You are now 32 years old and are currently on a Disability Support Pension. Approximately five years ago you were diagnosed with chronic paranoid schizophrenia. Your condition is managed by your GP and you are injected with Depot anti-psychotic medication fortnightly. You have held down various labouring jobs but were placed on the Disability Support Pension approximately three years ago, apparently on account of your schizophrenia.
You have been involved in two separate relationships with women. Both ended in tragic circumstances and your forensic psychiatrist, Dr Walton, in a report to the Court, set out the distress this has caused you. Currently, as a condition of your bail, you are living at home with your family. I gather this has not been without its difficulties.
Dr Walton states that you are not suffering from a simple drug-induced psychosis; you have a well-established diagnosis of chronic paranoid psychosis, and your underlying intelligence is normal.
Dr Walton thought that your schizophrenia may have had some impact on your judgement and he considered that persons suffering from same may be prone to rather impulsive ill-considered behaviour without proper consideration of the consequences of their actions. In my view, Dr Walton makes a faint case for a reduction in your moral culpability as a result of your mental impairment and I am not prepared to accept that there is a genuine and significant link between your undoubted mental illness and the offending conduct. Having said that, I do consider that your moral culpability is substantially reduced by your attempt to stop Ravenhorst’s brutal assault, and as I have said, I shall reflect this in the sentence that I impose.
Your mental impairment is relevant in another way. I accept Dr Walton’s opinion that any term of imprisonment would be made more onerous because of your chronic paranoid schizophrenia, and that that burden will be compounded or magnified because of your deafness.
After hearing a plea on your behalf, the focus of which was that you receive a Community Corrections Order with a condition that it be served at an institution called Teen Challenge, I requested a full pre-sentence report from the Dandenong Community Correctional Services. Initial assessment was frustrated by what appeared to the assessors as a frank psychotic episode. Shortly after that meeting you were hospitalised whilst attempts were made to stabilise your mental health. You were released and, I am told, monitored by a Crisis Assessment Team until 4 August after which Chandler House Mental Health Service assumed care. I am told that Ms Kelly O'Connor has coordinated your mental health treatment at Chandler House since that time. I am also told that a tentative appointment has been made for you at Wellington House, a residential facility. The object of this to assist in counselling, detoxification and dealing with your drug problems.
The final interview with Corrections Services was more successful. I am grateful to the authors of the report, Daniel Maguire and Luke Tucker, for the care and thought that has gone into it. For various reasons it was their opinion that the Teen Challenge proposal was inappropriate. I agree with this assessment.
The authors expressed the following opinion:
Mr Francois requires intensive support from an agency that is able to provide principal care coordination. If the court seeks to impose a Community Corrections Order this Service would refer Mr Francois to a care coordination agency which, if found suitable, would be able to monitor all aspects of Mr Francois’ health (including mental) and social support needs.
Since that report has been written I have been brought up to date with the services that are available to you by your counsel, Ms Spowart.
This is not a case where there are any easy sentencing options. Your prior convictions, which are not insubstantial, together with the circumstances of the offending mean that a term of imprisonment is the sentencing option that immediately appears appropriate. I have been persuaded that the community’s best interests, and yours, would be best served by placing you on a supervised order that aims to address your health issues, drug dependence and other behavioural problems. In my view, this disposition also adequately reflects your lesser criminality and your positive efforts to dissuade Ravenhorst from the violent course of action he was undertaking. If you are prepared to consent, I propose to impose a two-year Community Corrections Order which, in addition to the standard conditions, will carry the following conditions:
(1)You will carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work.
(2)You will undergo assessment and treatment in relation to your drug use and history as directed.
(3)You will undergo mental health assessment and treatment as directed.
(4)You will undergo offending behaviour programs as directed.
(5)The hours taken in relation to (2), (3) and (4) above, except for any time spent in a residential detoxification or drug treatment facility, will be deducted from the community work hours outstanding.
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