R v Iordanishvili
[2002] VSC 106
•26 March 2002
| IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA | Not Restricted |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
No. 1533 of 2001
| THE QUEEN |
| v |
| ZURAB IORDANISHVILI |
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JUDGE: | COLDREY J | |
WHERE HELD: | MELBOURNE | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 18 MARCH 2002 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 26 MARCH 2002 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | R. v. IORDANISHVILI | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2002] VSC 106 | |
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CATCHWORDS: Sentence – Plea of guilty to intentionally causing serious injury – Victim stabbed nine times by her offender husband in a domestic situation – Offender suffering from clinical depression at time – General deterrence sensibly moderated – Sentence of 7 years with a non-parole period of 3½ years.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Crown | Mr. D. Kayser | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr. M. O'Connell | Victoria Legal Aid |
HIS HONOUR:
Zurab Iordanishvili, you have pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious injury to your wife, Sofia Kalogeropoulos, at Coburg on 19 May 2001. I must now sentence you.
In order to do so, it is necessary to outline the circumstances surrounding the commission of this offence. You met your wife, Sofia Kalogeropoulos, in about October 1997. She was a solicitor specializing in immigration law and you were a client seeking a Sports Visa in order to remain in Australia. At this time you were a citizen of the Republic of Georgia, an independent country which had formerly been part of the USSR. You had been a champion fencer, representing your country and competing in a number of world championships. You were a finalist in the World Cup in Portugal. In 1996/97, while visiting Australia with the Georgian team, you took part in a number of competitions, winning two, and being placed fifth in the Australian Championships. You became acquainted with the Australian National Coach and you wished to remain in Australia as a coach - hence your application for a Sports Visa.
You started going out with Ms Kalogeropoulos in January 1998 and you married one year later. You could not speak English and your wife could not speak Russian but you could communicate with each other in the Greek language. There is no doubt your marriage was a genuine one. You hoped to formally study English, undertake tertiary studies, and perhaps pursue a career in the computer industry.
In September 2000, you and your wife jointly purchased a house in Munro Street, Coburg. Prior to this time you had lived in North Caulfield, an area which had a small Georgian community. You had been coaching at a club in South Caulfield, but the financial rewards were not great and consequently you obtained work on construction sites and as a house painter through contacts within the Georgian community. Later you engaged in employment as a process worker in a factory in Kealba.
It appears that the move to Coburg was the commencement of discord in your marriage. There were a number of factors which contributed to this disharmony. Living in Coburg, you felt isolated from the Georgian community. You were missing your elderly mother who lived in T'bilisi, the capital city of Georgia, and whom you had not seen for some five years. You were concerned about the financial obligations represented by the mortgage entered into on the Coburg property; you complained about a lack of social life; and you felt uncertain about your status in Australia because your application for permanent residency was still pending. Your wife describes you at this time as being withdrawn and a bit depressed.
By January 2001, you made it clear to your wife that you wished to return to Georgia. She endeavoured to explain to you that you should attain permanent residence status before leaving the country so at least you would have the option of returning to Australia. For her own part, your wife remained dedicated to preserving the marriage. Accordingly, she provided documentation required by the Department of Immigration indicating the stability of the marital relationship. However, evidence of the continuing marital discord can be gleaned from the evidence of neighbours. It seemed that your wife would scream at you, probably in exasperation and in the course of arguments, but neighbours such as Ms Janice Tomlinson did not hear you answering back until a time shortly before the date of this offence. As your counsel, Mr O'Connell, submitted, this suggests that your emotional volatility was increasing.
In April 2001, there was an incident where an argument developed in the early hours of the morning about the future of the marriage. It deteriorated into mutual pushing and shoving and you grabbed your wife's forearm, bruising the skin. She became hysterical and ran screaming into the street dressed only in her underwear. You followed and managed to calm her down. On another occasion, during a further argument about your leaving the marriage, you pulled the wooden back door off its hinges.
These arguments, which centred on your unhappiness at your situation, continued. Shortly after Easter you purchased a one way ticket to T'bilisi. Although she tried to convince you to stay, it appears that your wife reluctantly resigned herself to the termination of the marriage and a division of your personal belongings occurred. The flight was scheduled for 22 April and you flew to Sydney to embark on it. While there, a telephone conversation took place with your wife in which she again warned you of the cancellation of your visa should you leave the country. You had second thoughts and returned to Melbourne.
Unfortunately, the matrimonial turmoil did not abate and within a week you were complaining of having to leave Australia without money or other assets. This argument again degenerated into mutual pushing and shoving and the twisting of your wife's right arm behind her back. By this stage your wife was becoming frightened of you. Ms Kalogeropoulos' fear was not limited to your physical activities; it was exacerbated by what she perceived to be your deteriorating mental state. In her statement she described you as commencing to exhibit irrational behaviour. For example, you became paranoid about people knowing too much about you and your marital relationship. While doing a painting job, you expressed the belief that your wife had had secret conversations about that relationship with your boss. As a result, you abandoned the job.
On about 5 and 6 May 2001, you travelled to Phillip Island with your wife to spend time at a friend's holiday house. Your wife describes you as becoming paranoid about road signs and road names and accusing her of trying to get you lost. At one stage you left the vehicle declaring that she was trying to kill you. (I note that you also expressed the belief that your wife wanted to kill you in your record of interview). For Ms Kalogeropoulos this was the turning point in the relationship. She decided that the best course would be for you to leave. Consequently, she purchased you a ticket to T'bilisi for the earliest possible departure date which was 4 June. Your passport having expired, your wife arranged for you to sign an application for a certificate of identity. You initially refused to sign it and then you would only do so in green ink.
The arguments did not cease thereafter but they took on a financial flavour. You complained about your lack of money and your wife complained about your spasmodic working habits and a failure to contribute to the mortgage repayments and household bills. By 10 May, you were claiming that your wife was, in effect, financially exploiting you, and you referred to her by the Greek name for prostitute or slut. Your aggressive attitude so frightened Ms Kalogeropoulos that she arranged for her mother, Mrs Litsa Kalogeropoulos, to stay overnight at the Munro Street residence. This she did, whilst you slept on a mattress on the dining-room floor.
The final episode in this unhappy saga was played out on Saturday, 19 May. Your wife entered the premises about 9.30 a.m., having been shopping. She tackled you about seeking a job from among those advertised in the Saturday Age and gave you $10 to make such calls from a public phone.
(I should add, insofar as the house phone was concerned, access to mobile phone numbers and international dialling had been banned by your wife, largely because of the extensive bills you had incurred ringing Georgia.)
On Ms Kalogeropoulos's account, you were subsequently walking down the hallway towards the back of the house towards where your car was parked and she was following you. When you reached the kitchen area you turned around, grabbed her hair and started punching her in the head and face. On your wife's account, she said or did nothing to cause you to explode into violence. She describes you as, in effect, raining blows upon her as if you were in a frenzy. When she tried to protect her face with her hands, you pulled them away. The blows were painful and she became dizzy. Her efforts to escape were frustrated by your holding on to her jumper. You dragged your wife towards the kitchen sink, stating that you would kill her. In the ensuing struggle her jumper and T-shirt came off and the kitchen table and chairs were displaced. At the sink area you retrieved a black handled steak knife with a 10 centimetre serrated edge blade. Your wife described herself as screaming hysterically and pleading with you to let her go. You lunged at her with the knife, stabbing her in the region of the right breast. You stated, "I am going to kill you. We're both going to die. That's it".
By this stage you had released your grip and your wife describes you as walking around her methodically poking the knife into her body. She received nine stab wounds and she estimates this portion of the incident to have lasted about two minutes.
The medical evidence from various sources, including ambulance officers, Dr Alastair Meyer, the Deputy Director of Emergency Medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital where your wife was admitted, and Dr Sean Clark, the Forensic Medical Registrar at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, who examined your wife on 23 May 2001, reveals numerous bruises to Ms Kalogeropoulos' chest, back, upper limbs, head, neck and face. Additionally there were multiple stab wounds. In summary, there were three stab wounds to the apex of the left shoulder and one adjacent to the neck, occasioning damage to the cervical and thoracic nerves and penetrating the top of the left lung causing a pneumothorax (i.e. Air in the pleural cavity). Those wounds also caused damage to the left brachial nerve system, (i.e. The nerve system serving the left arm). Another stab wound was to the region of the right breast which also penetrated the apex of the right lung causing a pneumothorax. Additionally, there was a stab wound to the back of the left shoulder, two stab wounds to the lower left back and one to the lower right back. According to Dr Clark, the injuries to the left neck and right chest were life-threatening.
The multiple wounds caused considerable blood loss but your wife, nonetheless, attempted to leave the house. You barred her way and, feeling very weak, she lay down on the kitchen floor. She asked you to call an ambulance but you refused. You told her, among other things, that she was going to die there. Your wife describes you as pacing up and down. You washed the knife and placed it on the kitchen table. At about this time your wife started to scream to attract attention. You became agitated, put your hand over her mouth, and told her not to do so.
It is clear that you made no further attempt to attack her. Your wife asked for a drink of cordial which you made for her and assisted her to drink. Later you brought her water, the cordial having run out. You complied with her request to get her a pillow as well as a towel to stop the bleeding.
Eventually you agreed to call an ambulance, but only after your wife told you that she would say that her injuries were the result of an accidental fall in the bathroom. This was the account you peddled to the Emergency Services operator, although you cannot have had any real expectation that this version of events could be sustained. You told the operator that your wife was bleeding from the chest and to come quickly. You gave the correct address. When the Emergency Services rang back wanting to speak to your wife, you obtained her mobile phone for her so as to enable that conversation to occur. Thereafter, you waited in the house for police and ambulance to arrive. The police evidence was that you were in a very emotional state and crying. You repeatedly requested to see your wife, expressing concern about her wellbeing and regret at having hurt her.
There could be no doubt that Ms Kalogeropoulos underwent a terrifying ordeal, stemming not only from the attack itself, but also from her fear that it may resume at any time and her anguish that she may die from the wounds already inflicted.
Your own behaviour at the scene appears to have been contradictory and irrational. Having savagely attacked your wife, you ultimately provided personal assistance and sought outside help for her. This conduct may be regarded as some evidence of contrition.
It is important to indicate the ongoing effects of this offence upon the life of Sofia Kalogeropoulos. In a Victim Impact Statement, Ms Kalogeropoulos, who is now 30 years old, eloquently sets these out.
On the purely physical level, Ms Kalogeropoulos underwent emergency surgery and was hospitalised for 12 days, including 4 days in the Intensive Care Unit. Treatment of the injury to the left brachial plexus nerves involved the surgical breaking of the clavicle. There were complications in the healing process and three further operations, including bone and skin grafts and the insertion of a new - but temporary - metal rod occurred in October 2001. A legacy of this injury is significant weakness and loss of sensation and function in the left shoulder, arm and hand, as well as pain and discomfort. The impact of this injury upon Ms Kalogeropoulos is greater because she is left-handed.
Further, the scarring occasioned to Ms Kalogeropoulos not only makes her feel unattractive and self-conscious, but constitutes a constant reminder of this attack.
Apart from the financial impact of this offence, such as sole responsibility for mortgage repayments, the requirement to take unpaid leave for medical purposes, the psychological effect has been most traumatic. For example, Ms Kalogeropoulos' interaction with males and friends generally has been adversely affected; she feels hesitant about the prospect of living alone and frustration and anger at the pain and physical limitations she experiences in her left arm. Moreover, in a report by Dr Des Mouratides, a psychiatrist who has been treating Ms Kalogeropoulos, he expresses the opinion that she is currently suffering from a post-traumatic stress reaction as well as major affective and panic disorders.
This was a serious offence. It was perpetrated by you in what should have been the sanctuary of the victim's home and it was terrifying in its nature and scope. I accept that your actions were not premeditated and that your loss of control was of relatively short duration and was the culmination of the gradually increasing emotional pressure you were experiencing. Nonetheless, as I have stated before, the use of violence in the context of domestic disputes cannot be tolerated by the courts. In such cases, apart from the denunciation of the conduct, the deterrence of the perpetrator and of others minded to indulge in similar conduct, are usually prime factors in any sentence imposed.
In your case it was conceded by Mr Kayser, on behalf of the Crown, that because of the psychiatric evidence before the court, general deterrence should be sensibly moderated in accordance with the principles set out in R. v. Tsiaras (1996) 1 V.R. 398. That material came from Dr Justin Barry-Walsh, an experienced forensic psychiatrist, who prepared a report dated 3 March 2002 and gave evidence. Dr Barry-Walsh drew on the evidence of your wife about your increasing depression and paranoia preceding the offence. Apart from the factors leading to your depression, which I have already detailed, Dr Barry-Walsh recounted your comments to him, which included the belief that your wife was intimidating you, and the sense you had of the hostility of workmates and neighbours towards you. The episode at Phillip Island was mentioned and your assertion that an aunt told you that you would die if you signed a document in black or red colours.
Your account to Dr Barry-Walsh was of a growing sense of persecution which you related to your depression and saw as being primarily instigated by your wife. Apparently you also believed that members of your wife's family were following and watching you.
As to the offence itself, Dr Barry-Walsh expressed the view that you were not mentally impaired at the time. However, he went on to give the following opinion:
"... this man had a mental illness and there is some nexus between the illness and the offending. He was depressed and had developed markedly suspicious and persecutory beliefs that may have been delusional and certainly influenced his behaviour, rendering him more irritable and prone to anger. This combination of depressed mood and distorted thinking, thus, was a significant contributing factor in the subsequent offending.".
I should add that Dr Barry-Walsh expressed no concluded view about you having delusional beliefs at the time of this offence, and certainly trained psychiatric staff at the St Paul's Unit at Port Phillip Prison diagnosed depression without any other psychotic features. Indeed, you were treated with, and responded to, antidepressant medication.
Given your mental state at the time of this offence, there is some lessening in your level of moral culpability and to the weight to be given to specific and general deterrence. These factors must, however, be balanced against the gravity of the offence.
In the course of his plea, Mr O'Connell outlined a number of matters personal to you which are relevant to the sentence to be imposed. I have already referred to some of these.
You are currently 31 years of age. Your parents divorced prior to your birth and you were an only child brought up by your mother in T'bilisi. She was the principal of the local school. At school you excelled at sport. After completing the equivalent of the VCE, you were accepted into the prestigious Physical Education Institute in T'bilisi. You completed a four year degree course, graduating top of the class and qualifying to teach physical education and to coach sports. Thereafter you concentrated on the sport of fencing.
In 1992/93, while continuing to compete internationally, you undertook coaching in Thessaloniki, Greece, for a period of three years, before travelling to Australia in the circumstances I have described.
A number of character witnesses gave evidence on your behalf. Tamaz Frodiashvili spoke of your reputation as a kind person who was respected in the local Georgian community. In effect, he described your actions in committing this offence as out of character. He described you as being agitated and concerned about what you had done to your wife. Mrs Varvara Stepaneukova, an elderly lady originally from Georgia, told the court you were a calm, polite person. Both these witnesses attested to your being upset at the state of your marriage prior to May 2001. Finally, Ms Elena Sanders, who counselled you about your marital problems, stated that you were a very decent, introverted person, who was unsure of yourself.
Additionally, correspondence from relatives, Mr and Mrs Mikhailidi and Mrs Bondarevsky, and a friend, Mr Konstantin Maisouradze, was tendered to the court. That material attests to your marital unhappiness, the extraordinary nature of your actions and your remorse for what has occurred to your wife.
Your counsel also drew attention to your endeavours to improve yourself while in prison. You have successfully attended courses in anger management, reading and writing, information technology, and food preparation.
You have no prior convictions whatsoever. Your achievements indicate that you are intelligent. You have a relatively good work record. You have also contributed to the community through your coaching activities. In all the circumstances I have outlined, I regard your prospects of rehabilitation as excellent.
You offered to plead guilty to this offence at an early stage and that must be taken into account in reducing your sentence. I also accept that you feel remorse for what you have done.
Further, I have regard to the fact that, because of language difficulties and cultural differences, you will serve your prison sentence in isolated circumstances. This will constitute an added burden.
You are not an Australian national, but the question of whether, and when, you may be deported from this country can play no part in the sentence imposed.
Balancing as best I can the sentencing principles enunciated in the Sentencing Act, I have concluded that the appropriate sentence is that you be imprisoned for a period of 7 years. I fix a lower than usual non-parole period of three and a half years. Further, I declare the period to be reckoned as already served under that sentence is 312 days, inclusive of today's date; and I direct that there be noted in the records of the court the fact that this declaration is made and its details.
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