R v Jones

[2003] QCA 474

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:	R v Jones [2003] QCA 474
PARTIES:	R
v
JONES, Paul Anthony
(applicant)
FILE NO/S:	CA No 326 of 2003 DC No 1552 of 2003
DIVISION:	Court of Appeal
PROCEEDING:	Sentence Application
ORIGINATING  COURT:	District Court at Brisbane
DELIVERED EX	30 October 2003
TEMPORE ON:
DELIVERED AT:	Brisbane
HEARING DATE:	30 October 2003
JUDGES:	McPherson JA and Mackenzie and Wilson JJ Separate reasons for judgment of each member of the Court, each concurring as to the order made
ORDER:	Application for leave to appeal dismissed
CATCHWORDS:	CRIMINAL LAW – JURISDICTION, PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – JUDGMENT & PUNISHMENT – SENTENCE – FACTORS – CHARACTER OF OFFENCE – GENERALLY – whether short period of custody can be said
to be excessive for assault of this type
COUNSEL:	K M McGinness for the applicant M J Copley for the respondent
SOLICITORS:	Legal Aid Queensland for the applicant Director of Public Prosecutions (Queensland) for the respondent

McPHERSON JA: On the 8th of October last, the applicant

pleaded guilty in the District Court at Brisbane, to a charge

of occasioning bodily harm. He was sentenced to imprisonment
for 18 months, suspended after serving three months, for a

period of two and a half years.

He applies for leave to appeal against sentence, on the ground

that the sentence was excessive. The substance of the

complaint is that it was wrong to impose any term of actual

imprisonment on the applicant.

The circumstances leading to the offence are that on 26 August

2002, the complainant drove to a building in the West End,

where he had his office, and parked his car against the wall

in the underground car park. The complainant chose a place,

perhaps because it was the only one available, that was

reserved for someone else.

He was evidently not away for long, but, when he returned, he

found his car had been parked in by someone else, possibly the

legitimate occupier of the parking space.

The next thing he recalls, or the last thing he recalls, is

seeing the applicant approaching him, but he remembers nothing

else.

The applicant himself had driven into the same car park, where

he had a permanent car parking space of his own. He found

that it had been occupied by another, who was not the

complainant in this matter. He also saw the complainant, and

noticed that the complainant had parked his car where he
should not have been, and was sitting in his car sounding the

car horn.

The applicant approached the complainant and an argument of

some kind ensued, in which the applicant struck the

complainant twice in the face.

The second blow was powerful, causing the complainant to fall

back and to hit his head on a car behind him and then on the

concrete floor where he fell.

The medical evidence is that reasonable force must have been

used in inflicting the blow that brought the complainant to

the ground.

As a result, the complainant sustained an…