R v Skinner; ex parte Attorney-General

SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

R v Skinner;  ex parte A-G [1999] QCA 521

 PARTIES:

R
v
SKINNER, Noel Keith
(Respondent)
EX PARTE ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF QUEENSLAND
(Appellant)

FILE NO/S:

CA No 307 of 1999
DC No 96 of 1999

DIVISION:

Court of Appeal

PROCEEDING:

Appeal against sentence by Attorney-General

ORIGINATING COURT:

District Court at Rockhampton

DELIVERED ON:

17 December 1999

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

3 December 1999

JUDGES:

de Jersey CJ, Davies and Pincus JJA

ORDER:

Appeal against sentence dismissed

CATCHWORDS:

CRIMINAL LAW – JURISDICTION, PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – JUDGMENT AND PUNISHMENT – SENTENCE – CONCURRENT, CUMULATIVE AND ADDITIONAL SENTENCES, SENTENCES ON ESCAPE AND COMMENCEMENT OF SENTENCE – POWER TO IMPOSE – POWER TO IMPOSE SECOND CUMULATIVE SENTENCE – sentence appeal by Attorney-General – respondent convicted of assault occasioning bodily harm – sentenced to intensive correction order – also sentenced to serve previously suspended sentence – whether intensive correction order could be imposed cumulatively upon an activated suspended sentence – whether sentenced to two or more terms of imprisonment "at the same time" – whether intensive correction order is a sentence to a term of imprisonnment.

Corrective Services Act 1988, s 122, s 187(2)(d)

Penalties and Sentences Act 1992, s 112, s 113, s 118, s 146, s 147

CRIMINAL LAW – JURISDICTION, PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – JUDGMENT AND PUNISHMENT – SENTENCE – FACTORS TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT – TOTALITY – whether 12 month intensive correction order inadequate to meet the needs of general and specific deterrence – reference to respondent's criminal history – sentence imposed cumulatively upon earlier suspended sentence – whether totality of punishment manifestly inadequate for totality of criminal conduct

COUNSEL:

Mrs L J Clare for appellant
Mr J M McLennan for respondent

SOLICITORS:

Director of Public Prosecutions (Queensland) for appellant
Legal Aid Queensland for respondent

1. THE COURT:  The respondent pleaded guilty in the District Court at Gladstone on 20 May last on two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm.  On 13 August he was sentenced to a 12 month intensive correction order for those offences.  However the learned sentencing judge also ordered him to serve the whole of a previously suspended sentence of two years imprisonment and imposed the intensive correction order cumulatively upon the suspended sentence.  A term of three months, the suspended part of a six months sentence imposed in 1987 for possession of a dangerous drug, was ordered to be served concurrently with the two year period.  His Honour also made several other orders.  However this appeal, which is by the Attorney-General, is against the 12 months intensive correction order.

1. The respondent is 31 years of age having been born on 26 December 1967.  He has a prior criminal history dating from 1986 but that is mostly for offences relating to his dependence on drugs.  He has served two periods of imprisonment, each of three months;  both were for drug related offences, the one in 1987 already referred to, and one in 1997.  His most serious prior conviction, and the one…