R v MAB

[2004] QCA 281

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:	R v MAB [2004] QCA 281
PARTIES:	R v MAB (applicant)
FILE NO/S:	CA No 220 of 2004 DC No 1407 of 2004
DIVISION:	Court of Appeal
PROCEEDING:	Sentence Application
ORIGINATING  COURT:	District Court at Brisbane
DELIVERED EX	4 August 2004
TEMPORE ON:
DELIVERED AT:	Brisbane
HEARING DATE:	4 August 2004
JUDGES:	Davies JA, McPherson JA and Helman J 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 – JUDGMENT AND PUNISHMENT – SENTENCE – FACTORS TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT – CIRCUMSTANCES OF OFFENDER – applicant convicted on pleas of guilty – where counts of common assault, assault occasioning bodily harm, stealing and burglary were against applicant’s de facto wife and her children – whether head sentence of imprisonment for two years suspended after six months with operational period of three years excessive where no prior convictions.
R v Wentt [1995] QCA 613; CA No 440 of 1995, 6 December 1995, considered
COUNSEL:	S A Lynch for the applicant M J Copley for the respondent
SOLICITORS:	A W Bale & Son for the applicant Director of Public Prosecutions (Queensland) for the respondent.

1

HELMAN J: This is an application for leave to appeal against sentences imposed on the applicant on 15 June 2004 in the District Court at Brisbane. He was charged on seven counts and pleaded guilty to each.

In counts 1 and 2 common assaults at Drewvale, Queensland were
alleged – in each case on a date unknown between 30 September
1999 and 1 December 1999. The assault alleged in count 1 was
upon the applicant's then de facto wife, and that in count 2
upon the wife's daughter, issue of a previous relationship.
In the course of an argument between the applicant and his
wife, he called her a prostitute and slapped her face twice.
The wife began to cry and the daughter intervened. The
applicant struck the daughter on the face and again struck the
wife. The applicant desisted after a neighbour intervened.

In count 3 an assault occasioning bodily harm on the wife's son, then aged seven or eight years was alleged. The son, too, was issue of the wife's previous relationship. The incident that gave rise to this charge took place when, after an argument in the applicant's car, the wife and her son fled from it, but the applicant chased them and dragged the boy across rocky ground to the car and threw him onto the back seat. The boy's legs bled from contact with the ground. That offence was alleged to have taken place at Toowoomba or elsewhere in Queensland on a date unknown between 30 September 1999 and 20 January 2000.

2

Count 4 was another allegation of common assault. It was alleged that it took place on or about 19 January 2000 at Brisbane or elsewhere in Queensland. The assault occurred following arguments…