R v Mould

[2020] NSWDC 670

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:

R v Mould [2020] NSWDC 670

Hearing dates:

25 September 2020

Date of orders:

02 October 2020

Decision date:

02 October 2020

Jurisdiction:

Criminal

Before:

Neilson DCJ

Decision:

Imprisonment 7 years 6 months NPP 3 years 9 months.

Catchwords:

CRIME – SENTENCE

30 charges of common assault, one charge of assault OABH, 11 charges of produce child abuse material and one charge of possession of child abuse material – Form 1 contained further 7 charges of common assault and a further charge of possession of child abuse material.

Physical (not sexual) child abuse – Offender had been a baseball coach and/or manager for over 30 years – Physically abused young males he was coaching/managing to “toughen them up”, to deal with competitive sports and the vicissitudes of life – Some of the abuse recorded by video camera and kept by him, but not distributed, not replayed – Offender aged 70 at time of arrest, 71 at sentence – Numerous medical problems – Suffering from high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder – Lacked insight into how offending behaviour could affect the mental health of his victims – Otherwise of good character – Given his age, medical conditions and character custody would be very onerous for offender – Appropriate case for aggregate sentence – Special circumstances – Discussion of relevance of offender’s motive.

Legislation Cited:

Crimes Act 1900

Cases Cited:

McCullough v R [2009] NSWCCA 94

Category:

Sentence

Parties:

Stuart Angus Mould (Offender)
Regina (Crown)

Representation:

Counsel:
Givorshner (Offender)
Walkowiak (Crown)

File Number(s):

2019/00268381

Publication restriction:

Nil.

Judgment

1. HIS HONOUR: Stuart Angus Mould stands for sentence after admitting a large number of crimes. The offender is better known as Angus or Gus Mould, who was arrested for these offences on 28 August 2019. He was then 70 years old. He is now 71 years old. He has pleaded guilty to 30 charges of common assault, one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, 11 charges of the production of child abuse material, and one charge of possessing child abuse material, He also asks me to take into account on a Form 1 seven further common assaults and one further charge of the possession of child abuse material.

2. There are 15 known victims of the offender’s crimes, five of whom have provided victim impact statements. When before me last Friday, I handed down to the representatives of the parties a schedule listing the names of the known victims and the pseudonyms that I would use to identify them. That schedule has now been typed and a copy of it has been given to the lawyers and any victims present. I have indicated on that schedule which victims have provided victim impact statements. The original of that document will be MFI D1.

3. The victims, both known and unknown, are male. With one exception, at the time of each offence the victims were minors, that is, under the age of 18 years. At the time of the various…