R v Keen

[2015] QCA 97

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

R v Keen [2015] QCA 97

PARTIES:

R
v
KEEN, Tahu Sean
(applicant)

FILE NO/S:

CA No 62 of 2014
DC No 125 of 2014

DIVISION:

Court of Appeal

PROCEEDING:

Sentence Application

ORIGINATING COURT:

District Court at Beenleigh – Unreported, 13 March 2014

DELIVERED ON:

5 June 2015

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

14 May 2015

JUDGES:

Holmes and Gotterson JJA and Boddice J
Separate reasons for judgment of each member of the Court, each concurring as to the order made

ORDER:

The application for leave to appeal is refused.

CATCHWORDS:

CRIMINAL LAW – APPEAL AND NEW TRIAL – APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE – GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE – SENTENCE MANIFESTLY EXCESSIVE OR INADEQUATE – where the applicant was sentenced to eight and a half years imprisonment, with a serious violent offence declaration, for one count of deprivation of liberty and one count of malicious act with intent – where the applicant attacked the complainant with a Samurai sword, tied his neck and hands with zip ties and left him in a locked room – where the complainant sustained a number of serious injuries, including a severe traumatic brain injury – where the applicant committed the offences in breach of bail and two suspended sentences – where the applicant had a criminal history with relevant entries for robbery with actual violence, assault occasioning bodily harm and burglary –whether the sentence was manifestly excessive

R v Amery[2011] QCA 383, considered
R v Eade[2005] QCA 148, considered
R v Hasanovic[2010] QCA 337, considered
R v Holland[2008] QCA 200, considered
R v Janz[2008] QCA 55, considered
R v Mikaele[2008] QCA 261, considered
R v Thompson[1997] QCA 94, considered

COUNSEL:

The applicant appeared on his own behalf
B J Power for the respondent

SOLICITORS:

The applicant appeared on his own behalf
Director of Public Prosecutions (Queensland) for the respondent

1. HOLMES JA:  The applicant was sentenced to eight and a half years imprisonment in respect of one count of malicious act with intent, with a declaration that the offence was a serious violent offence, and another two years imprisonment, concurrent, on a further count of deprivation of liberty.  He seeks leave to appeal those sentences.

   The circumstances of the offences

2. According to a statement of facts tendered in the sentencing hearing, the applicant and his co-accused, Peta-Renee Higgins, had been in a relationship.  In annoyance at some behaviour of the applicant’s, Higgins went to stay with the complainant.  When the applicant collected Higgins from the complainant’s house about a week later, she alleged the latter had raped her.  Surrounding circumstances suggest that that was untrue, but there is nothing to indicate that the applicant did not believe the allegation.  He contacted various friends, including a man named Palmer, about means of taking revenge on the complainant.  Palmer formed a plan to rob the complainant, in accordance with which Higgins telephoned him and persuaded him to come to Palmer’s…