R v Mill

[2013] VCC 1367

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA Revised
(Not) Restricted
Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE  CASE NUMBER: CR-12-00847

CRIMINAL DIVISION

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

DAMIAN MILL

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE GAYNOR
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	16 August 2013
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	R v. Mill
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2013] VCC 1367

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:  
Catchwords:            
Legislation Cited:    
Cases Cited:            
Sentence:                

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the DPP	Mr P. Kilduff
For the Accused	Mr N. Hutton

HER HONOUR:

1       It is very helpful, thank you.  You can remain seated until I ask you to stand, Mr Mill.

2       Damien John Mill, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of recklessly causing serious injury and one charge of recklessly causing injury.

3       The facts underlying the offending are as follows:  In the early hours of 14 March 2003, three complainants, Ryan, Leetra and Collins left a party where they had been drinking and walked with friends towards Ryan's house.  The three of them, between 1 and 2 a.m. urinated down the path of 36 Burchall Crescent, Rowville, a property next door to yours.  Ryan threw some litter into your backyard at 38 Burchall Crescent and your nephew, Daniel Keating, who was in the backyard with two female friends went to the side fence to see who had thrown the litter, apparently a bottle.  Ryan ran off and Leetra hid behind some bushes and Keating and another man approached the fence and began a verbal argument with Leetra.  Ryan returned and joined in the argument with both sides swearing and threatening each other.

4       Hearing the argument from the house, you came out armed with a cricket bat and a Taser.  Leetra and Ryan then armed themselves with fence palings and Collins then joined the group and tried to calm the situation down.  You Tasered Collins, who felt an intense shock and was partly paralysed for a short time and left the scene. 

5       I forgot to add that you also pleaded guilty to summary charges which had been uplifted, they being assault with a weapon, which your actions in Tasering Collins underlie, and possession of a prohibited weapon, that comprising the Taser.

6       Leetra and Ryan, who had armed themselves with palings from the boundary fence at number 35, moved to the footpath of number 36 trying to leave and were followed by you and Keating.  You struck Leetra to the forehead with the cricket bat causing a large laceration and extensive bleeding, which actions underlie charge 2 on the indictment, recklessly causing injury.  You then turned to Ryan and Tasered him in the neck, then hit him in the head with the cricket bat, fracturing his skull.  Ryan fell to the ground and was hit on the back with a fence paling by Keating and then with the cricket bat by you.  These actions underlie charge 1 on the indictment, recklessly causing serious injury.

7       Leetra and Ryan then went into Ryan's mother's home and the two of them were taken to Dandenong hospital by her.  Ryan suffered bruises, abrasions, a fractured skull and internal haemorrhage requiring emergency surgery.  He was hospitalised for several days.  Leetra received 12 stitches for the wound to his head caused by the cricket bat.

8       Police searched your house on 17 March 2012, finding the cricket bat and Taser there.  In your record of interview you denied being in possession of the Taser during the fight, saying you found it afterwards, but admitted striking Ryan and Leetra with the cricket bat, saying it was in self‑defence.

9       When the matter was ultimately resolved as a plea, you abandoned your claim of finding the Taser and pleaded guilty to the relevant summary offence of possessing a prohibited weapon without exemption.

10      While witnesses said that the Taser device admitted a bluey spark on the night of the incident, no formal forensic testing of it was undertaken so it is not known how much current or voltage the device was discharging when activated.

11      The maximum penalty for recklessly causing serious injury is 15 years imprisonment.  A maximum penalty for recklessly causing injury is five years imprisonment.  The maximum penalty for assault with a weapon is two years imprisonment and the maximum penalty for possessing a prohibited weapon without exemption is two years imprisonment and/or a fine.  The victims declined to make a victim impact statement.

12      I now turn to your personal circumstances.  You are 41 years old and were 38 at the time of this offending.  You are the second of two children born to your parents.  Your father was a truck driver.  He was also a violent alcoholic who assaulted you physically and repeatedly from the time you were about five or six, and you lived in constant fear of him.  You told psychologist, Jeffrey Cummins, whose report is dated 25 July 2011 and a further report dated July 2013 tendered on the plea, that you recall one occasion when you were 13 when you were almost punched unconscious by him and that you walked on egg shells around him until your late 30s.  He was also violent to your mother, and your parents separated when you were 16; your mother fleeing with you to take up a secret residence in another area.

13      After three months your father located you and tried to kill himself in front of you.  You then began a relationship with him because he gave up drinking and joined Alcoholics Anonymous for six months, a move you now believe was an attempt by him to get your mother to return.  However, he relapsed back into drinking in 1989 and your mother moved to Geelong to get further away.  You told Mr Cummins you believe you bear a permanent psychological scar due to your father's repeated physical abuse of you and have been assiduous in ensuring that you never physically discipline your own young son, who now lives with you.

14      You grew up in the Bayswater area and attended Knox Technical School in your secondary years until midway through year 2011.  Your counsel told me the school you attended was rough, you had to learn how to fight and were ultimately asked to leave because you assaulted another student.  According to Mr Cummins, you were too frightened to tell your father you had been expelled from school and within several days of leaving, obtained an apprenticeship as a motor trimmer, which job you held for about six months of that year, after which you and your mother absconded from the family home.

15      You then completed two years of a cabinet making apprenticeship but ceased that when the business closed.  You undertook further cabinet making work and then for about eight months sold insurance and a savings plan.

16      When you were 19 you returned to live with your father and with his help borrowed $60,000 to buy a service station and gas business in Boronia which you ran for 12 months but which closed after the service station, Delta, was sold by the parent company.

17      Your father, who by then had relapsed heavily back into alcohol abuse, was beating you and you left him to move in with a girlfriend in Wantirna.  It is appropriate at this point that I turn to your prior criminal history.  1990 you were fined for theft of a motor vehicle and placed on a good behaviour bond for possession and use of cannabis. 

18      In 1991 you were fined in the Ringwood Magistrates' Court for intentionally or recklessly causing injury and assault in company, which charges arose out of a fight in a nightclub.  You were fined $500 for unlawful assault later that year, that charge arising out of a road rage incident. 

19      In 1992 you were sentenced to a month's imprisonment for driving whilst your licence was suspended.  In March '92 you were fined for possession and use of cannabis. 

20      In 1993 you were placed on a community‑based order for handling stolen goods which involved purchasing stolen hot water services. 

21      In 1994 you were sentenced to two years imprisonment with a minimum term of one year and nine months on charges of aggravated burglary and blackmail.  This offending occurred because you owed your father money and it would seem were in some fear of him.  You broke into the home of a man you knew to be a drug dealer and threatened him in order to make him give you money.  Whilst in gaol you were dealt with for previously committed offences, that being an indecent assault for grabbing a girl's breast and for which you received three months imprisonment, which was served concurrently, together with a further sentence, criminal damage, involving you smashing the windscreen of a girlfriend's car.  These offences were, as I have said, committed prior to you being gaoled in 1994.

22      In 1995 you were breached on the community‑based order that because you had been gaoled you were unable to undertake the conditions, and received a two month concurrent gaol sentence.

23      In 1996 you received three months imprisonment for theft where you took a construction saw which was lying on the side of the road, which sentence on appeal was converted to a community‑based order which you successfully completed.

24      In 2002 you were fined a total of $300 for attempted trafficking of cannabis and attempted possession of heroin where you met with a drug dealer, seeking to swap cannabis for heroin which you intended to use to overdose on in a suicide attempt.

25      In 2003 you were fined for cultivating, possessing and using cannabis and for possessing ammunition without a licence and possessing prohibited fireworks, essentially revolved around possession of those fireworks.

26      In 2003 you received a partially suspended sentence of 60 days on a charge of theft from a motor vehicle.  In that year you were also fined for breaching an intervention order and were placed on an adjournment to be of good behaviour for using an unregistered motor vehicle, possessing a controlled weapon without excuse and further driving offences.  You received another suspended sentence later that year for driving offences and in 2004 were fined for handling stolen goods. 

27      In April that year you were gaoled for one month for harassing a witness and for breaching the suspended sentence you received in December 2003.  The charge of harassing a witness arose from you, according to your counsel, inadvertently speaking to a witness called by police in the case against you when you arrived at court.  As a result of the breach of suspended sentence and the charge of harassing a witness, you received a total term of one month imprisonment.

28      In June 2004 you were placed on an intensive corrections order on charges of possessing a prohibited weapon without exemption and driving while authorisation suspended.  That weapon was apparently a belt knuckle‑duster which had been brought back to you from America by a friend.  That intensive corrections order was also imposed in relation to a charge of possessing cannabis.

29      In September 2004 you were placed on a six month wholly suspended sentence for recklessly causing serious injury and handling stolen goods.  That offending related to a dispute with a housemate over his pet defecating in your home, in the house you shared with him, after you had had it cleaned when expecting access to your son.  The handling charge related to a stolen shirt given to you by a friend.  You were also placed on a one month suspended sentence on that occasion for driving offences.

30      In September 2005 you were placed on another three month wholly suspended sentence for driving offences. 

31      Then in January 2008 the intensive corrections order was breached, which your counsel informed me was a technical breach, caused by your inability to undertake unpaid community work because of an old workplace injury and the order was never confirmed.

32      In 2008 you were fined $200 for theft which occurred after your father's funeral when you stole a bottle of alcohol, and in 2010 you were fined for possession of prohibited weapons without exemption or approval.  Nunchukas and a flick knife, which in fact was a novelty lighter and extendable baton, items that you had possessed for many years.

33      I have interrupted a recitation of your personal circumstances and history to give a fairly detailed outline of your prior criminal history, as part of it led to a reformation in your working and personal life, the destruction of which, due to a work related injury then goes on, in my view, to explain much of your further offending.

34      After you came out of gaol, after serving your sentence for blackmail and aggravated burglary, you began and completed a cabinet making apprenticeship, attending night school at Holmesglen; at the same time locating your mother in Kyneton where she was suffering from breast cancer.  You and she had always had a very close relationship.

35      You brought her back to Melbourne and cared for her until she died in 1999.  In that time you obtained employment with and became the foreman of a shop fitting company with some 20 employees beneath you and one can see from your prior criminal history, a gap in offending from essentially 1994, apart from the December 1996 theft charge, until 2002 when you were fined for trafficking of cannabis and attempted possession of heroin at which stage you determined to end your life.

36      What that means is that the offences on the prior criminal history immediately before that and going back to the appearance at the Bendigo County Court in 1994, they being matters which arose prior to your sentence on that occasion, is that from 1994 until 2002, effectively, there was only one appearance in court by you and I am satisfied that in that period of time you served a sentence of imprisonment, came out of gaol and made a determined effort to lead a productive and law abiding life, during which time, as I have said, you were the carer for your mother until she died from terminal cancer.

37      In 1999 you formed a relationship of which your son, Zac, was born.  In August 2000, however, you suffered a serious work related injury to your back and were then in receipt of WorkCover payments for about eight years until October 2008, when you received a settlement sum of about $480,000.  That was in 2010.

38      You have not been able to work since obtaining that injury and suffered a great deal of pain, which has been ongoing.  You were prescribed morphine and then became dependent on the medication Oxycontin which addiction continued for many years.

39      It appears you suffered the normal depression courts often see with hard working men who are then unable to work and are suffering pain and that contributed to the break down of your relationship with your son's mother, which ended in May 2002.  You have not repartnered.  I note that it was in 2002 that you committed the drug offences underlying the suicide attempt by you and the aftermath of the failure of your relationship, the fact that she left you, took your son, and you had a great deal of difficulty maintaining contact with him, undergoing acrimonious family court proceedings.

40      Your life, therefore, had become extremely difficult.  Your mother had died.  Your relationship had broken up, you had sustained a back injury which prevented you from working, caused depression and continued on to cause you chronic pain, a problem that has continued to this day.  Therefore, there were great difficulties in your life and in the process as well you became addicted to Oxycontin. 

41      Then in 2007 your son's mother, having become involved in methylamphetamine or ice use, your son was taken from her and you were given custody of him and have been the sole parent to him ever since,  your son having had little contact with his mother in the interim.

42      Your father died of cancer in 2007 and you cared for him during the last years of his life, but were still addicted to Oxycontin, sometimes covertly, using your father's medication.  You told Mr Cummins that in about 2004 to 2005 you also took three overdoses of various substances, on one occasion heroin, and on two occasions prescribed medication, when you were feeling depressed about the progress of the family court proceedings about your son.

43      Things improved after you took custody of your son and towards the end of 2009 you were weaned off Oxycontin and your back pain, which you still suffer, was treated instead with methadone.  You remained on methadone until January this year when you took yourself off it in the apprehension that you would be gaoled for the offending that has brought you before this court and your concern about being on that drug whilst in gaol.

44      A mental state examination by Mr Cummins led him to the view that you did not present as being psychotic or schizophrenic, or having an anti‑social personality disorder or traits of it.  He believed that you presented with a mildly elevated level of paranoia and defensiveness which he attributed to your history of domestic violence at your father's hands.  Mr Cummins said you presented as being of normal and average intelligence, you telling him you felt depressed about your inability to undertake physical work because of your continuous and residual back pain and that you felt chronically depressed about that pain.

45      Insofar as your drug and alcohol history is concerned, you have been a sporadic smoker of cannabis since you were 18.  From the age of 19 for about 12 months you were an intravenous user of amphetamine.  Alcohol has only been used by you on a sort of binge drinking basis, you apparently staying off it at times for years.

46      You also told Mr Cummins that your primary focus now was on raising your son in a responsible manner in contrast to how you were raised by your chronically violent and alcoholic father.  You said that at the time of hitting your victims with the cricket bat and Tasering them, you believed you were acting in self‑defence.  You are, of course, now, particularly concerned about your son's future, you being his sole carer and there being no relatives with whom you can place him, should you be incarcerated.

47      In his further report dated 30 July 2013, Mr Cummins noted that late last year you offered an "olive branch" to your son's mother leading to a situation where she moved into your home, although you did not want to resume a relationship with her but wanted her to be part of your son's life and for her to have a more active role in it.  No sexual relationship was ever resumed and problems swiftly arose as previously she had been homeless and it became obvious she was still battling an amphetamine addiction.  Eventually you told her to leave your home in April this year because of her behaviour.  She got access to your savings account and stole $10,000, two laptops and you and your son's mobile phones.  After she left, she made an allegation to the Department of Human Services that you had bashed your son, which allegation was never acted upon and which you vehemently denied.  She sent one text message to your son in May but there has been no contact ever since and it would appear that that relationship between your son and his mother has broken down, almost irretrievably.

48      In addition to your work injury, you fractured your coccyx bone in 2008 which has also caused chronic pain and sleeping difficulties, you having been unable to sleep continuously in a bed without having to get up and walk around in the night since mid to late 2012.  You continue to suffer chronic insomnia, although this appears to be partly attributable to your constant worrying about the likelihood of being gaoled and the lack of appropriate friends or acquaintances who would be suitable persons to look after your son in your absence.

49      It was Mr Cummins' view in 2011 that you suffer a chronic post‑traumatic stress disorder and a chronic dysthymic disorder, that is a depressive disorder, triggered through your years of being a victim of repeated domestic violence at your father's hands.  He believed the depressive disorder was then exacerbated due to your lower back injury and inability to work.  It was his view that this disorder, that is the depressive disorder, may have elevated to the status of a major depressive disorder in recent years.  He did not assess you as having a general anger management problem but he did regard you as having chronically elevated levels of vigilance and suspicion, related, again, back to your history of domestic violence

50      In 2013, it was Mr Cummins' view you continued to suffer the symptoms of chronic post‑traumatic stress disorder which included irritable behaviour, hyper vigilance and exaggerated style of response and mood regulation problems; again, having their genesis in your father's mistreatment.  Mr Cummins stated, "In my opinion, there was a nexus between him suffering from mental illnesses in the form of a post‑traumatic stress disorder, and a depressive disorder, and his offending behaviour as at that time his ability to accurately perceive and to engage in reasoned problem solving was compromised by his mental health.  Mr Cummins also opines that your mental health would deteriorate if you were incarcerated "as he clearly regards himself as his son's saviour and in my opinion, his mental health is very much linked to the perception he is a successful, caring father".  

51      Mr Cummins observed you and your son together in 2011 and reported a positive relationship between the two of you.  He also believed your son was at risk of developing separation disorder if separated from you if you were gaoled.  You have not reoffended in the period since the matters which have brought you before this court occurred. 

52      I also received a report from Maria Vastianos, the school counsellor, psychologist of the Knox school where your son attends ‑ his fees being paid by his elderly grandparents who reside in northern Queensland.  In her report dated 24 July 2013, Ms Vastianos said she had, on two occasions, counselled your son, who is now aged 12 and in Year 7 at the school.  She said, Zac presented as a friendly and well‑mannered young boy who reported a close and caring relationship with you, noting that "his mother suffers from an mental illness so there is now no contact between them."  Ms Vastianos said your son reported feeling overwhelmed with anxiety, stress and sadness regarding your legal circumstances and it was her professional opinion that he would experience a great deal of emotional distress should you be sentenced to a term of imprisonment.  It was her understanding that he does not have any other meaningful or reliable supports and indeed that would appear to be the case.  The expectation is that some sort of Department of Human Services foster care arrangement would have to be made for him in the event of you being gaoled. 

53      You were spontaneously contacted by Ms Vastianos on 18 July 2013, she saying she was concerned for your son's welfare because he had been talking about not coping should you be gaoled, and that you had had trouble getting him to school because of the stress he is experiencing. 

54      A plea offer was made prior to the committal hearing but it was unable to be resolved, the sticking issues being self‑defence and use by you of the Taser.  You believed that you were acting under self‑defence, although I should say at this point, I do not accept that what you did even amounted to excessive self‑defence in that you did pursue retreating victims.  However, I do accept that you wished to resolve the matter at an early stage and that you are remorseful for your actions.  Mr Cummins in his 2011 report also noted that you expressed remorse to him. 

55      It is clear, however, as your counsel frankly admitted, that you were not telling the truth, until very recently, about the Taser, which was apparently given to you by a friend; you repeating the untruth about it to Mr Cummins when he saw you in 2011

56      It was the prosecution submission that I should deal you by way of a sentence of imprisonment to be immediately served.  As you are obviously aware, Mr Mill, it is the general view of the courts that serious physical attacks such as those you perpetrated upon your victims on this evening should be met with severity and ordinarily, persons who offend in this way can only expect to be dealt with in such a manner.  Serious violence must be discouraged.  Principles of general deterrence and just punishment and denunciation of such conduct usually dominate the sentencing exercise before a court in such cases. 

57      However, very fortunately for you, and this is the last time this is going to happen ‑ you can remain seated ‑ in my view, there is an unusual constellation of circumstances which exist in your case which together have persuaded me that such a course is not necessary.  I am not sending you to gaol. 

58      PRISONER:  Thank you. 

59      HER HONOUR:  These circumstances are:  1.  I am persuaded there was a nexus between a psychological condition suffered by you at the time, that is a post‑traumatic stress disorder and depression, symptoms including paranoia, hyper vigilance and overreaction such that the moral culpability for your offending, and I say this without in any way condoning the violence that you exhibited that night, is somewhat lessened.  That is, I find there is a Verdins‑type link applicable in your case.  I note the victims in this matter had to proceed quite some way into the neighbouring house where they urinated before they could throw litter into your yard.  I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that although they did ultimately retreat, they took some time in doing that and that the way in which you reacted to what you seemed to have regarded as some sort of violent intrusion upon the home where you cared for your son, although very excessive, was contributed to by the untreated psychological conditions you have suffered probably since your late teens; as a victim yourself to many years of domestic violence. 

60      2.  You have not offended since and I am satisfied that the prospect of being parted from your son has had a salutary effect upon you and has enhanced your rehabilitative prospects. 

61      3.  You have clearly been a good and responsible sole parent to your son, which is to your credit, and which I regard as being an important factor in assessing your future risk to the community.  I am satisfied that your desire to remain with your son to care for him has been and will be a strong protective factor insofar as the community is concerned and your likelihood of offending in the future is concerned. 

62      4.  I am satisfied your son would suffer significant disadvantage and trauma were you to be incarcerated.  Given the state of the authorities, I do not regard his situation as amounting to exceptional circumstances of hardship but I do accept he would suffer greatly and this is another factor in the mix. 

63      5.  I am satisfied your continuing psychological conditions of post‑traumatic stress disorder and depression would make service of a sentence of imprisonment more difficult for you than for other prisoners; another Verdins‑type factor, if I can put it that way.  I am also satisfied that that difficulty would be exacerbated by your ongoing pain condition. 

64      In reaching that conclusion, I am fortified by the opinion expressed by your GP, Dr Gurdip Aurora, whose report dated 12 August 2013 was tendered.  He noted that you have been under his care since 2000 following the injury to your back at work.  He noted that you were seen by several specialists and deemed to have an inoperable disk prolapse from which you suffered extensive pain, as well as anxiety and depression because of low back pain.  It was his view that you turned to the use of illegal drugs like marijuana, heroin and amphetamines for pain relief; noted that your wife left you and took your son with her; that you were devastated, became more depressed and turned to petty crime.  He noted that you were, for a time, addicted to Oxycontin but then went on to the methadone program, and he noted that at present time you are not on any illicit drugs, including prescription narcotics.

65      It is a little out of the order in which I am expressing the conditions that have satisfied me that a non‑custodial disposition is appropriate, but Dr Aurora also notes that you continue to suffer from depression; that he has started you on an anti‑depressant and valium for your anxiety; that he has recently seen your son stating, "The poor kid was sad, teary and depressed.  He was worried about his father going to gaol." He notes that Zac was very uncertain about his future and what would happen if you were to go to gaol.

66      6.  There has been a delay of two years, in fact a delay of coming up to something in the region of two and a half years since the commission of this offence; partly due to your determination to plead not guilty and your insistence that you did not possess the Taser.  Whatever the cause of the delay, the authorities make it clear that where prior to sentence there has been a lengthy process of rehabilitation and the evidence does not indicate a need to protect society from that person, the punitive and deterrent aspects of the sentencing process should not be allowed to prevail so as to possibly destroy the results of that rehabilitation. 

67      The strength of that dictate is somewhat lessened where a person has contributed to the delay, and I am satisfied you have, but nevertheless, you have not reoffended, you have attended to your son's well‑being, you have attended to your medication issues.  You have been assessed by the Office of Corrections, to whom I referred you for assessment for a community corrections order, as having a general low risk of reoffending.  I am also satisfied that this period of time since that offending has been one of particular suffering for you, you being aware what the consequences of your actions could have been upon your son should you be gaoled.

68      For all these reasons, I am satisfied that you have most positively prospects of rehabilitation which gaol would only interrupt.  It is my view that the sorts of issues that have led you to offend in the past could well be reignited were you placed in gaol and that it is in the community's best interests, as well as your own, that I deal with you by way of the imposition of a community corrections order.

69      Stand up Mr Mill.  Do you realise how very fortunate you are to escape gaol on this occasion? 

70      PRISONER:  I do and I am very grateful.

71      HER HONOUR:  Do you understand that if you breach the order I am about to impose in any way you better bring a toothbrush with you? 

72      PRISONER:  I do.

73      HER HONOUR:   You nearly put an intolerable burden upon your son, the son that you love so much.  This is very serious offending.  Luckily for you, you have stayed out of trouble for two and a half years.  You have certainly had a lot of difficulty in the past few years but you did a sensational job, yourself, in the 90s.  You have done a very good job with your son.  He has got a pretty bright future, it would seem to me.  You simply have to understand that you need to attend to your own particular problems.  The courts see men like you, in workers compensation cases, suffer exactly what you have, that is, they can't work any more so the days are long and boring and life seems hopeless and they are suffering continuous pain and this very often leads to depression.  You need to be aware that that is the situation.  On the other hand, you are the sole carer for your son, and that is a very positive sort of thing to have in your life.  It is a reason for getting up every day and it is a reason for making your life as good as it possibly can be. 

74      You have been very realistic about your prospects in coming to court today.  Those prospects, as I have said, the likelihood of being gaoled, have had an appalling effect on you and your son.  As I have said, I am quite satisfied you have suffered greatly.  But if you are going to stay out of trouble in the future, understand, you have got a post‑traumatic stress order which means you overreact particularly in cases where you feel you or more particularly your son, is under threat.  You caused a very very serious injury to one of those young men.  Had things been worse, had his injuries been ongoing, and I note in the contested committal proceedings it appears the injuries you inflicted have satisfactorily resolved, but had they not, Mr Mill, and you are extremely lucky that they did resolve, you know what you could have been looking at ‑ you could have been looking at something like a manslaughter where there would have been no result for you other than something like ten years in gaol with an eight minimum and you would have missed out on the rest of Zac's life in terms of those terribly important adolescent years.  That came about because you completely overreacted.  Completely and totally overreacted.

75      The order will contain conditions which are not designed just to act as some sort of punishment, although that is part of why this order is being imposed, but with conditions that you need to adhere to because they are designed to assist you in dealing with those problems that led to this offending in the first place.  It nearly wrecked everything that you have built up with Zac since 2007. 

76      The order is going to last for three years.  The fundamental conditions, the core conditions of the order are this:  You must report to your local community corrections centre within two working days of this order, that is by Tuesday next week.  Whilst on the order you must not commit any offence punishable by imprisonment inside or outside Victoria.  That doesn't mean you have to be gaoled, you simply have to be convicted of an offence for which you could be gaoled; such as stealing a box of matches from Safeway.  You understand me?  You absolutely have to keep your nose clean.  You must report to and receive visits from the community corrections officer.  You may not leave Victoria without the permission of the community corrections officer.  You must obey the lawful directions of the community corrections officer.  You must report any change of address or employment to the Office of Corrections within 48 hours of that change.  Do you understand? 

77      PRISONER:  I do.   

78      HER HONOUR:  In addition, I am going to order that you undertake, and I will make a note of this in the order, I know you have got this back condition so that there is some limitation on what unpaid community work you can undertake but I am going to order that you undertake 250 hours of unpaid community work.  Many people who are on community corrections orders leave it up to the community corrections office to organise everything.  If you are not able to undertake the work that they assign you then go in and talk to them and you are the one who must initiate that.  All right? 

79      PRISONER:  Yes.

80      HER HONOUR:  If it proves simply impossible, come back and I will vary the order but that is what we will start off with.  You are to be supervised; you are to undergo assessment and treatment for alcohol and drug dependency; you are to undergo assessment and treatment for mental illness.  That is to do with your depression.  I am also going to order judicial supervision.  I am going to order reports every three months so I will be able to keep an eye on your progress and you are to come back before me at 12 month intervals so I can see how you are travelling.  Okay? 

81      PRISONER:  No worries. 

82      HER HONOUR:  This is not the last time, sadly, for you, Mr Mill, that you and I will see each other.  The first date for that will be ‑ ‑ ‑

83      PRISONER:  I have already got an appointment with Office of Corrections in Dandenong.

84      HER HONOUR:  Excellent.  We are just now organising the date for the appointment with me, Mr Mill, which you need to be far more worried about.  It will be Friday 15 August 2014 at 10 a.m. I am also going to order that you undertake programs designed to address offending behaviour, which will probably include an anger management program.  Are you willing to enter the order? 

85      PRISONER:  More than happy to.

86      HER HONOUR:  I'll bet you are.  We will get it drawn up.

87      PRISONER:  Thank you very much. 

88      HER HONOUR:  Pursuant to s.6AAA I declare that had you not pleaded guilty, I would have sentenced you to a term of imprisonment of three years and order that you serve a minimum term of 18 months.  I will sign the disposal order.  I am also going to order that you provide a forensic sample to police which will comprise a saliva sample.  You have to report to the officer in charge at the Knox police station in Wantirna South within four weeks of this sentence.  I will get you to sign the order, thank you, Mr Mill. 

89      The other core condition I don't know that I mentioned, is that you must obey all lawful instructions from and directions of the secretary or delegate of the Office of Corrections.

90      That is it, I will see you in 12 months, Mr Mill.  I hope it all goes well.

91      PRISONER:  Thank you very much.

92      HER HONOUR:  I thank counsel for their assistance in this matter.  

93      ADJOURNED UNTIL FRIDAY 15 AUGUST 2014