R v Mikhail

[2020] VSC 681

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA Not Restricted

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

S ECR 2019 0271

Between:
THE QUEEN
-and-
DIMITRI MIKHAIL	Accused

---

JUDGE:	Croucher J
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	8 September 2020
DATE OF SENTENCE:	15 October 2020
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	R v Mikhail
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2020] VSC 681

---

CRIMINAL LAW — Sentence — Attempted murder — Accused stabbed de facto wife with screwdriver 25 times to face, chest, shoulders and arms, intending to kill her — Offence committed while couple’s children also home — Child dragged accused away from victim — Life-threatening injuries to chest — Physical injuries resolved — Wound to upper lip required cosmetic surgery — Unable to conclude whether scarring to upper lip is permanent — No victim impact statements — Accused had history of perpetrating family violence against victim — Early plea of guilty initially, then withdrawn, then reinstated — Some remorse — Significant criminal history — Traumatic childhood in war-torn Iraq — Disability pensioner because of back injury — PTSD and depression — History of alcohol and methamphetamine abuse — Guarded/reasonable prospects of rehabilitation — Hardship of prison given mental health afflictions and risk of worsening same given COVID-19 restrictions — Current sentencing practices — Relevance of general deterrence, specific deterrence, just punishment, denunciation, community protection and rehabilitation — Parsimony — Totality — Reduction of sentence by two months to account for loss of pre-sentence detention because of unrelated matter — Sentence of eleven years and four months’ imprisonment with non-parole period of eight years and one month — But for plea of guilty, sentence of fourteen years and four months’ imprisonment with non-parole period of eleven years and four months.

---

APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Crown	Ms K Churchill and Ms S Clancy	Ms A Hogan, Solicitor for Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr A Malik	Valos Black & Associates

HIS HONOUR:

Overview

1. On the morning of 9 June 2019, Dimitri Mikhail[1] did something unforgivable to Maria Fabri — his de facto wife of 19 years and the mother of their three teenage boys.  While in their home at Craigieburn, Mr Mikhail, in a frenzied attack, took to Ms Fabri with a sharpened stubby screwdriver.  He forced her back onto their couch and stabbed her, not once or twice, but up to 25 times to her chest, shoulders, arms and even her face.  Incredibly, perhaps, to many — but consistently with the accounts of victims in many an assault of this type — Ms Fabri did not realise that she was being stabbed or that her partner was even armed.  Instead, she thought he was just punching her.  As the pounding continued, she yelled out, “You’re going to kill me.”  Chillingly, Mr Mikhail’s response was, “Yes, that’s what I want to do.”

   [1]In 2005, Mr Mikhail changed his surname to Mikhail from Toma.

1. Thanks to two of the couple’s sons, however, and perhaps also as a result of an extraordinary piece of luck, Ms…