R v US
[2016] ACTSC 130
•18 May 2016
SUPREME COURT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
Case Title: | R v US |
Citation: | [2016] ACTSC 130 |
Hearing Date: | 8 April 2016 |
DecisionDate: | 18 May 2016 |
Before: | Burns J |
Decision: | See [65]-[74]. |
Catchwords: | CRIMINAL LAW – JURISDICTION, PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Judgment and Punishment – Sentence – offences against the person – sexual intercourse without consent – attempted sexual intercourse without consent – sexual assault in the second degree – assault occasioning actual bodily harm – property offences – theft – burglary – young offender – significant criminal history – currently serving significant terms of imprisonment – increase in head sentence. |
Legislation Cited: | Crimes Act 1900 (ACT) ss 24(1) 52(1) s 54(1) Criminal Code 2002 (ACT) ss 44, 308, 311(1) Mental Health Act 2007 (NSW) |
Cases Cited: | KT v The Queen (2008) 182 A Crim R 571 |
Parties: | The Queen (Crown) US (Offender) |
Representation: | Counsel Mr M Fernandez (Crown) Mr T Quilter (Offender) |
| Solicitors ACT Director of Public Prosecutions (Crown) Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT (Offender) | |
File Number: | SCC 235 of 2015 |
BURNS J:
US, you appear before me today for sentence with respect to one count of sexual assault in the second degree, three counts of sexual intercourse without consent, one count of attempted sexual intercourse without consent, one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, one count of burglary and one count of theft.
The offence of sexual assault in the second degree is contrary to s 52(1) of the Crimes Act 1900 (ACT) (the Crimes Act), and has a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment. The offence of sexual intercourse without consent is contrary to s 54(1) of the Crimes Act, and has a maximum penalty of 12 years imprisonment. The offence of attempted sexual intercourse without consent is contrary to s 54(1) of the Crimes Act, by virtue of s 44 of the Criminal Code 2002 (ACT) (the Criminal Code) and has a maximum penalty of 12 years imprisonment.
The offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm is contrary to s 24(1) of the Crimes Act and has a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment. The offence of burglary is contrary to s 311(1) of the Criminal Code and has a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment, a fine of $140,000.00, or both. The offence of theft is contrary to s 308 of the Criminal Code and has a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, a fine of $100,000.00, or both.
You committed these offences in 2009 at which time you were 17 years and 10 months old. On 11 June 2015, you were extradited to the Australia Capital Territory (ACT) and charged in the Childrens Court with these and other offences. On 29 June 2015, you pleaded not guilty and the matter was listed for a case management hearing on 7 September that year.
The police prepared a brief of evidence which was served on you. On 2 November last year, following negotiations between yourself and the Director of Public Prosecutions, you entered pleas of guilty to these charges, being the charges to which you had initially pleaded not guilty. You were then committed to this Court for sentence where you adhered to your pleas of guilty.
The facts
All of these charges arise out of the one incident and an Agreed Statement of Facts was tendered at your sentence hearing. I will now summarise these facts.
With respect to the charge of burglary, on 30 April 2009, at approximately 10.30 am, TE, who for convenience I will now refer to as the victim, returned home from work to find her house had been broken into. When she went into the bedroom she saw you with your face masked. Your plea of guilty to the charge of burglary means that you accept that you entered the victim’s premises as a trespasser with intent to steal property from those premises.
The victim screamed when she saw you and you then lunged at her and grabbed her hair. You pulled her by the hair to the kitchen where you then opened a kitchen drawer and took out a knife with a 20 centimetre long blade. The victim continued to scream and you pushed her through the living area with your arms around her and the blade of the knife pointed at her chin. There was a struggle where you grabbed the victim by the throat and squeezed her throat forcefully. During the struggle the victim grabbed a bookcase and tipped it over on you, however, was unable to break free. During the struggle the victim fell heavily and it would later be found that she had fractured her coccyx. This constitutes the charge of sexual assault in the second degree.
At this point you dragged the victim to the main bedroom and pushed her on to the bed. You tied the victim’s hands behind her and then put a pillowslip over her head. As you were putting the pillowslip over her head she was able to observe that you had a tattoo of a crucifix on your inner left arm or forearm. You then threatened to hurt her if she did not stay on the bed. The victim heard you moving around the house as she remained on the bed. After several minutes you came back and began undressing the victim until she was completely naked except for the pillowcase over her head. Her hands were no longer tied behind her back at that point. You then instructed the victim to lie face down on the bed and lift her buttocks in the air. You removed the tampon she had inside her vagina and threw it on the ground. You then commenced to thrust your fingers inside the victim’s vagina causing her to scream in pain. You repeatedly pushed your fingers with such force into her vagina that it caused her to be pushed off the edge of the bed. This constitutes the first charge of sexual intercourse without consent.
You then pulled the complainant back to the middle of the bed and ordered her to “finger” herself as you rummaged through the bedside drawers. You said, “keep fingering yourself, bitch, use two fingers”, and repeatedly ordered her to use two fingers. You then attempted to insert your penis into her vagina, however, as you were not fully erect you were unable to penetrate the victim’s vagina. This constitutes the charge of attempted sexual intercourse without consent.
You then inserted your finger into the victim’s anus and touched the outside of her vagina and anus with your other fingers. This constitutes the second charge of sexual intercourse without consent.
You then had penile-anal sexual intercourse with the complainant. At some time during this you stopped and again began rummaging through the victim’s bedside drawers. The victim described hearing something that sounded like a plastic wrapper and formed the opinion that you had found, or were opening, a condom wrapper from her bedside drawer.
You then again commenced having penile anal sexual intercourse with the victim and this continued for a period of time until the victim heard you making some groaning noises. This constitutes the third charge of sexual intercourse without consent.
After you withdrew your penis from the victim, you said, “Don’t think I’m going anywhere, bitch.” The victim heard you get dressed and walk out of the room to another part of the house. She remained lying face down and naked on the bed with a pillowcase over her head as she had been too frightened to move. You then returned to the bedroom and pressed the tip of a knife against her buttocks before you stroked the tip of the knife around the back of her legs, buttocks and back. You did not do this with enough force to cut her skin except for a small scratch on her shoulder. This constitutes the charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
You then asked the victim whether she “had any stuff.” She replied, “If you mean drugs, no I don’t do drugs.” You said to her, “I don’t fucking care if you do drugs. I didn’t ask you that.” You then said, “Say anything or move and I will kill you, bitch”, before leaving the room.
A short time later you returned and ordered the victim to shower. You then closed the shower curtain as the victim stood under running water. The victim could see the silhouette of you through the shower curtain, standing in front of the shower holding the knife in your hand with the blade pointed downwards. You then left the bathroom.
The victim stayed in the shower and after approximately 10 to 15 minutes she got out of the shower, as she did not see or hear you moving. She then called her neighbour and asked her to come over straight away. She told her neighbour that she had been raped and robbed. Her neighbour then immediately rang police. This was at 11.40 am.
The victim later identified a number of items as having been stolen from her house, including two Apple MacBook laptop computers and two Apple iPods. This is the basis of the charge of theft.
When the police attended the premises they established a crime scene. Two used condoms were found on the main bedroom floor. The victim was medically examined and treated following the offences. Medical staff noted that she had bruising to the rear of her right upper arm and numerous small abrasions on her hands, arms and face, along with a hand-shaped red mark on her buttocks. X-rays also revealed the victim had fractured her coccyx, as I have previously mentioned. A doctor took swabs from the victim’s genitalia and anus, which were later sent to Australian Federal Police Forensics for analysis.
The police later obtained and examined security footage from the house opposite the victim’s home. The footage captured a partial view of the front of the victim’s home. Police were unable to see you arrive or enter the victim’s house, however, were able to observe the victim arriving home at 10.34 am. The footage also revealed a male leaving the victim’s house carrying a large bag before walking along out of view of the camera at 11.24 am. The quality of the footage did not allow police to identify the features or clothing of the male who walked out of the house. At approximately 11.33 am the footage shows the victim’s neighbour running across the road to enter the victim’s house.
On 1 August 2009, the Director of the “Bridge Back to Life” Program, which provides accommodation and support for young men went to the Belconnen Police Station and handed over three laptop computers, which had been left at one of the organisations’ group houses after one of the clients had vacated the house. The remaining clients advised that the laptops were found in a bag belonging to you. Police later confirmed that the serial numbers of those computers matched the ones stolen during the burglary at the victim’s premises on 30 April 2009.
Following a car accident on 9 August 2009, New South Wales (NSW) police arrested you and you were conveyed to the Canberra Hospital for treatment. On 11 August 2009, police spoke to you about the burglary and sexual assaults on 30 April 2009, however, you declined to be interviewed.
On the 12 August 2009, police obtained an order under the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act 2000 (ACT) and obtained a buccal swab sample from you, and a photo was taken of a crucifix tattoo located on your inner left forearm. The DNA that was extracted from the buccal swab was then compared with the biological samples taken from the victim and the condoms found by police on 30 April 2009. These confirmed a match.
On the 12 August 2009, however, you were extradited from the ACT to NSW to face charges for offences committed on 9 August 2009. You were later sentenced to a term of imprisonment in NSW for those offences.
Victim impact statements
At the sentence hearing the victim read aloud her victim impact statement. She described the terror in which she found herself after the attack, which seeped into every aspect of her life. She was afraid to leave the house to do simple tasks, such as shopping, for the fear of coming back into her house and someone being inside.
She had to move houses as she was no longer able to remain in the house where the attack took place. She was unable to go back to work permanently and although she attempted to study to gain a new qualification she suffered a lot of anxiety and stress, which deepened the depression she had experienced since the assault. As a result, she has never been able to return to work and currently is on a disability support pension.
The victim described feeling ostracised by people who she considered to be her friends and isolated. She was also diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The victim also described how she was convinced that you were going to murder her in the attack and that her 14 year old daughter would come home to see her mutilated on the bed.
The victim’s daughter also tendered a victim impact statement at your sentence hearing. She wrote of how difficult it has been to see the way in which the assault has affected her mother. She also described finding it difficult to feel safe after the assault and suffering from anxiety and depression. She found it difficult to attend school and connect with her friends. She also felt lonely and isolated.
Criminal history
You have a significant criminal history for your age, being 24 years old. A number of documents were tendered at your sentence hearing relating to your criminal history. It appears that your criminal history in the ACT is restricted to the charges I have before me for sentence today, however, your criminal history for NSW, which was also tendered, reveals a number of offences commencing from 2004, which were dealt with in the Childrens Court.
I take into account this criminal history without reciting the contents herein. I note that you have a number of convictions for offences of dishonesty, in addition to convictions for aggravated break and enter, and possession and use of a prohibited weapon. I also note that at the time you committed the present offences you were on several probation orders imposed by the NSW Childrens Court on the 22 September 2008 and the 23 February 2009.
The most alarming of the offences that you have been convicted of occurred when you escaped from custody in July 2011 in NSW. In relation to the string of offences you committed in July 2011 the sentencing remarks of Judge Norrish QC, were tendered, as was the indictment that you ultimately pleaded guilty to which was dated 20 July 2012 and an Agreed Statement of Facts, which were presumably tendered at that sentence hearing.
It is important that I briefly summarise these offences as they occurred after the offences for which you are before me for today. Following your escape from lawful custody you broke into a house, stole property from that house including a car, which was found three days later. You then broke into another house in Wagga Wagga in the early hours of the morning at a time when you would have known people would have been likely to be home. One of the children in this house, a five year old girl woke to find you up in her room. At this point you led her out of her bed, took her across the road and performed cunnilingus on her until you were interrupted. You pled guilty to nine charges relating to these offences and a sentence of sixteen years and nine months imprisonment was imposed. That sentence expires in 2028 and you will be eligible for parole in August 2023. You have not served any days in custody that relate solely to the present offences.
The Crown put before me a copy of the warrant issued for your arrest dated 4 June 2014. I also have a copy of a request for transfer to the ACT to be dealt with according to law, authored by the Attorney-General and dated 29 August 2014. On 13 October 2014, this transfer request was consented to and appropriate arrangements to facilitate this were made. I have nothing placed before me that would indicate the reason for the delay in issuing the warrant for your arrest, following the confirmation that your DNA was linked to these offences.
Subjective features
A Pre-Sentence Report was not prepared for this matter as you refused to participate in interviews with ACT Corrective Services to assist with the preparation of such a report.
Psychiatric Report dated 5 May 2010
I also have before me a medico-legal forensic psychiatric report dated 5 May 2010 by Prof Greenberg, which relates to charges that you were then facing in NSW. I will refer to this Report for the purposes of noting some of the details of your background. This Report relates to a psychiatric assessment that Prof Greenberg undertook on 15 April 2010 at which time you were 18 years of age and I note that the offences before me were committed before this Report was commissioned.
You previously lived in Dubbo with your mother and siblings. You do not have any children and you did not report any significant relationships at the time of the Report. You are of Aboriginal heritage. Your father was an alcoholic and died when you were 16 years old of a stroke and liver and kidney disease. You reported a good relationship with your father and you also claim to have had a good relationship with your mother. You stated that you are the third oldest of six children. Your eldest brother died at birth and you reported that two of your sisters and one brother have all had contact with the criminal justice system. You reported being abused at home, however, refused to further speak of this abuse.
You claimed that you completed Year 10, although you were expelled from both high schools you attended for fighting. It does not appear that you have been gainfully employed for any significant period of time. At 12 years of age you were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and were prescribed medication for this, however, you discontinued this medication shortly after as you were abusing illicit substances at that time.
You reported that you began to binge drink at the age of 13 years and admitted to blackouts, early morning drinking and alcoholic shakes. You also began to smoke cannabis at 13 years of age. You reported that you began to use two points of amphetamines from 15 years of age. You also reported that you began to “binge” cocaine and heroin when you were 16 years old.
You reported that you began to abuse cannabis when you were 17 years old. You stated that you were involved in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program for three months in Dubbo in 2008, and although you claim that you completed this program, you reported using amphetamines and cannabis when you left the program. You also reported completing the same drug and alcohol rehabilitation program for two and a half months in Canberra, however, you were discharged for smoking cannabis. In 2006, when you were in a Juvenile Justice Detention Centre at Orana, you saw a psychiatrist. At this time you were prescribed mood stabilising medication which you discontinued when you were discharged from this Centre.
You also reported that in 2009 you attended Dubbo Hospital because of an attempt to hang yourself. You told Prof Greenberg that you attempted to hang yourself because “you couldn’t control yourself” and had become a “bad thief, drug addict and an alcoholic.” Prof Greenberg expressed conclusions with regard to your mental health, which I will not set out in any great detail here. However, I note that he was of the opinion that there were no reasonable grounds to believe that you suffered from a developmental disability, or suffered from a mental illness or mental disorder, as defined in Mental Health Act 2007 (NSW).
I note that you also reported being stabbed in the lumbar back region four years ago and stabbed in a right limb three years ago at the time of that Report. You did not give any detail as to how those injuries came about. You also reported being assaulted on your temple with a bottle in 2000.
Psychiatric Report dated 11 October 2012
A Psychiatric Report dated 11 October 2012 was also placed before me. The Report was prepared by Dr Olav Nielssen. This Report was prepared in relation to your sentence proceedings for the offences you committed in 2011 in NSW following your escape from prison, which I recited in some detail earlier. There are some minor discrepancies in this Report from the one I have just outlined above, and I note that Dr Nielssen, had the report of Prof Greenberg to assist him in preparing his Report.
Of significance, I note that you reported some periods of severe depression and that you had attempted suicide on three occasions, by stabbing yourself in the lung in 2006, pouring petrol over yourself and attempting to light it, and deliberately crashing a car while being chased by police in 2009. I also note that you were taken into foster care at age 12. You reported several head injuries resulting in admission to hospital and you told Dr Nielssen that you now have “heaps of problems with thinking.” Again, you did not give any details as to how those injuries came about.
Psychiatric Report dated 6 February 2013
I also have a copy of a further Psychiatric Report prepared by Dr Nielssen dated 6 February 2013, which appears to have been at the request of your legal adviser at the time. I note that that Report states that you were the victim of physical abuse by your mother and at one stage an Apprehended Violence Order was taken out to protect you from your mother.
It was the view of Dr Nielssen from the information available before him that your mother’s substance use during pregnancy may have affected your neurological development, you were brought up under extreme poverty, and you may have been subject to possible childhood malnutrition, in addition to the severe neglect of your emotional and developmental needs.
Dr Nielssen’s opinion was that the effect of the conditions of your upbringing would seem to be an increased propensity to abuse substances to alleviate distressing emotional states and to resort to violence to solve interpersonal problems.
Offender’s evidence
You gave evidence at the sentence hearing which was quite brief. When asked how you felt about what you did to the victim, you said, "Words can't describe. I destroyed two peoples' lives." You refused to talk about what happened to you as a child and said, "Today is about the victims" and that you had to pay the consequences for your actions. Additionally, I note nothing has been placed before me to indicate that you have undertaken any programs whilst incarcerated directed towards your rehabilitation.
Consideration
At the time you committed the present offences, you were under 18 years of age. As such, s 133B of the Crimes Sentencing Act 2005 (ACT) (the Crimes Sentencing Act) requires me to sentence you as a young offender to whom the provisions of chapter 8A of that Act apply. In sentencing you, I must consider the purpose of promoting your rehabilitation, and I may give more weight to that purpose than to other sentencing purposes, such as deterrence and punishment. This is provided by s 133C(1). I must also have particular regard to the common law principle of individualised justice as required by s 133C(2).
In deciding how you are sentenced, I must consider in addition to those matters set out in s 33 of the Crimes Sentencing Act, your culpability for these offences having regard to your maturity, your state of development, and your past and present family circumstances. The provisions to which I have just referred do not say that sentencing considerations such as punishment and deterrence must be ignored in sentencing juvenile offenders. You have committed serious crimes. The Crimes Sentencing Act effectively adopts the principles developed by the common law in sentencing juveniles.
Much may depend on the nature of the crimes committed, the age and apparent maturity of the offender and an assessment of their moral culpability. In KT v The Queen (2008) 182 A Crim R 571, McClellan CJ at CL, expressed the view that:
The emphasis given to rehabilitation rather than general deterrence and retribution when sentencing young offenders, may be moderated when the young person has conducted him or herself in the way an adult might conduct him or herself and has committed a crime of violence or considerable gravity.
His Honour noted that the weight to be given to considerations relevant to a young offender's youth diminishes the closer the offender approaches the age of maturity. Although, where the immaturity of an offender is a significant factor in the commission of an offence, the criminality of the offender will be less than if the offence had been committed by an adult. Any sentence of imprisonment I impose must be the shortest appropriate term. There is no provision for me to set a non-parole period with respect to any sentence of imprisonment I impose upon you as a young offender, but I am obliged to consider making a combination sentence consisting of the sentence of imprisonment and a Good Behaviour Order with a supervision condition.
I cannot make a suspended sentence order. In my opinion, the phrase "shortest appropriate term" in s 133G(2) means when a combination sentence is being imposed, the shortest appropriate sentence of imprisonment, taking into account the fact that the offender will be subject to supervision under a Good Behaviour Order for a period deemed appropriate by the court. I have set out the nature and circumstances of the offences. They are objectively very serious offences, involving intrusion into the home of the victim, followed by a prolonged and brutal sexual assault on the helpless victim using a knife to ensure compliance with your demands.
Your use of the knife during the offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm when the victim's head was covered by the pillow case was calculated to terrify the victim and was particularly cruel. You were nearly 18 years old when you committed these offences. There is nothing in the evidence before me to suggest that you possessed less than normal maturity for someone of that age. These offences were not the result of a lack of comprehension of the gravity of your actions born of immaturity. These were, in truth, adult type offences committed by an offender close to his eighteenth birthday.
That is, not to say, that your age at the time you committed these offences is to be overlooked, but it does speak of the appropriateness of giving weight to deterrence and retribution. Your criminal history also speaks of the need to consider specific deterrence and the protection of the public. In large measure, however, these considerations have been addressed in the sentences that were opposed in the District Court of NSW. A significant circumstance in determining the appropriate sentences for these offences is your background of neglect, abuse, instability and exposure to violence.
I accept that your history had a role in shaping the person that you are. Your childhood deprivation undoubtedly continues to affect you to this day. I do not accept, however, that your childhood deprivation adequately explains the present offences. Certainly, nothing could justify them. Your background, however, is relevant to determining your moral culpability for these offences. You have a long history of substance abuse, but there is no convincing evidence that you were drug affected at the time you committed the sexual assaults. It may, perhaps, be inferred that you committed the burglary to obtain the means to buy drugs, but there is no apparent link between your drug abuse and the sexual offences.
Nevertheless, I do not doubt that your prospects for rehabilitation will be enhanced if you stop using illicit drugs. You have attempted drug rehabilitation in the past, but you have inevitably and quickly returned to drug abuse in the community. There is no evidence that you are currently participating in programs or courses in custody to address the likelihood of relapse into drug abuse when you return to the community. I observe, however, that the sentence of imprisonment that you are currently serving is comparatively lengthy and it may be that with greater maturity you will participate in, and complete, such courses.
Your prospects for rehabilitation at the present must be seen as guarded. There is no convincing evidence that at the time you committed these offences you were suffering from any mental or physical illness or incapacity, such as to reduce your moral culpability for these offences. There is no evidence that you will find imprisonment more onerous because of any mental or physical incapacity. It is beyond doubt that these offences have had a devastating effect on the victim and her family. It is likely that these effects will continue indefinitely.
Your counsel submitted to me that I should not impose sentences that significantly increased your current period of imprisonment as such a sentence may be viewed as crushing. It would be well for you to remember that what you did to the victim will most likely continue to affect her long after you are released from prison. As I have already noted, you are currently serving sentences of imprisonment, which will not expire until 2028 and which do not allow for your release on parole until 2023.
I must sentence you in such a way as to impose an aggregate sentence that, to the extent that is possible, would have been imposed if sentences had been imposed for the NSW offences and the present offences at the same time. I must ensure that the overall sentence is one that reflects the totality of your offending. I must also take into account the fact that the present offences all occurred as part of a single, continuous series of events involving a single victim, such that some concurrency of sentences is called for.
You entered early pleas of guilty to these offences. I accept that your pleas evidence a degree of remorse as did your evidence at the sentence hearing. Your pleas also relieved the victim of the necessity to give evidence of these events. I also accept that your pleas had significant utilitarian value. It must be observed, however, that the evidence against you was particularly strong. Balancing these considerations, I will reduce the otherwise appropriate sentence by 20 per cent in order to reflect your plea of guilty. Accepting, as I do, the fact that your moral culpability for these offences is diminished by your age and your childhood deprivation, no sentences other than significant terms of imprisonment are appropriate for these offences and particularly for the sexual assaults.
I may say that had you been an adult when you committed these offences, I would have imposed significantly longer sentences than those which I will now impose. Sentencing is complicated in this matter because I cannot impose a non-parole period with respect to the sentences I will impose and I cannot interfere with the non-parole period set with respect to your current sentences. This is the consequence of the provisions of part 5.2 of the Crimes Sentencing Act. If you were released on parole with respect to your present sentences on the earliest possible date, 17 August 2023, you will be on parole for a minimum of five years and three months.
Ordinarily, with separate and serious offending such as the present offences, I would endeavour to increase the head sentence and also the period during which you would not be eligible for release on parole. I find that I cannot achieve both objectives taking into account the appropriate sentence for these offences, the need to consider a combination sentence and the statutory prohibition on altering your present non-parole period. In my opinion, an aggregate sentence of eight years imprisonment is appropriate with respect to the present offences.
It is highly desirable that you be the subject of intensive supervision and direction on your release and that this continue for a significant period. A Good Behaviour Order for a period of five years is appropriate, but allowing for supervision to be terminated earlier if deemed appropriate. I will reduce the sentences to be imposed to an aggregate of six years in order to reflect the lengthy good behaviour orders which I will impose. I will do this by making concurrent the sentences for the third, fourth, fifth and sixth offences, whereas otherwise I would have structured those sentences in such a way as to add two years to the aggregate sentence.
The aggregate sentence of imprisonment which I impose will commence on 18 August 2019 and expire on 17 August 2025. The effect of this will be to increase by two years the period of imprisonment that you must serve before you are eligible for release.
Sentence
On the first offence, that of burglary, I record a conviction and impose a sentence of 19 months imprisonment reduced from 24 months to reflect your plea of guilty. This sentence will commence on 18 August 2019 and expire on 17 May 2021.
On the second offence, that of theft, I record a conviction and impose a sentence of eight months imprisonment reduced from 10 months to reflect your plea of guilty. This sentence will be concurrent with the sentence which I have imposed for the offence of burglary.
On the third offence, that is the offence of sexual assault in the second degree, I record a conviction and impose a sentence of four years imprisonment reduced from five years to reflect your plea of guilty. This sentence will commence on 18 August 2019 and expire on 17 August 2023.
On the fourth offence, sexual intercourse without consent, I record a conviction and impose a sentence of three years and two months imprisonment, reduced by 10 months to reflect your plea of guilty. This sentence will commence on 18 August 2019 and expire on 17 October 2022.
On the fifth offence, an offence of attempted sexual intercourse without consent, I record a conviction and impose a sentence of three years and two months imprisonment reduced by 10 months to reflect your plea of guilty. This sentence will also commence on 18 August 2019 and expire on 17 October 2022.
On the sixth offence, an offence of sexual intercourse without consent, I record a conviction and impose a sentence of three years and two months imprisonment reduced by 10 months to reflect your plea of guilty. This sentence will also commence on 18 August 2019 and expire on 17 October 2022.
On the seventh offence, the offence of sexual intercourse without consent, I record a conviction and impose a sentence of four years imprisonment reduced from five years to reflect your plea of guilty. This sentence will commence on 18 March 2021 and expire on 17 March 2025.
On the eighth offence, that of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, I record a conviction and impose a sentence of 20 months imprisonment reduced by five months to reflect your plea of guilty. This sentence will commence on 18 December 2023 and expire on 17 August 2025.
There will be a Good Behaviour Order for a period of five years from 18 August 2025 with a condition that you are to accept the supervision or probation of the Director-General or his or her nominee for a period of five years, or such lesser period as deemed appropriate by your supervising officer and you are to undertake such assessments, counselling, programs or treatment as directed, particularly addressing prevention of relapse into drug abuse and sexual offending.
Amendment to orders
Following the hand down of this sentence, the sentencing proceedings were subsequently re-opened pursuant to s 61 of the Crimes Sentencing Act on 3 June 2016. On this date, I amended the length of the Good Behaviour Order I had previously imposed to three years pursuant to s 133W of the Crimes Sentencing Act.
| I certify that the preceding seventy-four [74] numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Sentence of his Honour Justice Burns. Associate: Date: 21 June 2016 |
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