R v Wallace
[2006] VSC 400
•14 August 2006
| IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA | Not Restricted | |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
No. 1496 of 2006
| THE QUEEN | Plaintiff |
| V | |
| BELINDA WALLACE | Defendant |
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JUDGE: | BONGIORNO J | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 14 August 2006 | |
DATE OF JUDGMENT: | 14 August 2006 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | R v Wallace | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2006] VSC 400 | |
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Criminal law – sentence - perjury – plea of guilty – two years with non-parole period of 9 months – wholly suspended.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Crown | Mr T. Gyorffy | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr A. Jackson | Haines & Polites |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Belinda Wallace, you pleaded guilty to one count of perjury. Perjury is a serious offence which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment. The facts surrounding the commission of this offence can be very briefly stated.
2 On 7 November 2004 you saw your ex-boyfriend, Bradley Gee, murder Angelo Capanis, a man with whom you had formed a sexual relationship, thus inciting a jealous reaction in Gee. The event occurred in a house in Wilson Street, Colac. When you were interviewed by the police you described Capanis's killer in terms which were designed to remove suspicion from Gee. You made a statement to police to that effect, which statement you signed. It was what the law calls a juratted statement. That is to say it was designed to be used in a court proceeding, and by law a person making a false statement in such circumstances is guilty of perjury. You knew that at the time you signed the statement, where you signed an acknowledgement to that effect.
3 Eventually you fled Victoria with Gee and remained as fugitives until you were intercepted by police at Cooktown in Far North Queensland, although even then you tried to divert police attention from Gee by telling the Queensland officers that Gee was in Sydney. You told a psychologist, Bernard Healey, who has assessed you recently, that you were under the influence of heroin at the time of the murder. Whether this is so cannot now of course be affirmatively established.
4 You were born in Newcastle and you lived there with your parents until they separated when you were six. You then lived with your mother and four siblings until the age of ten. Your mother is now aged 42, in receipt of a carer's pension, having assumed responsibility for two year old twins of your sister. Your father is deceased. You have a 17-year old sister, the mother of the twins, who leads a transient existence in and around Newcastle. She is a victim of amphetamine abuse. You have a brother of 25 who lives at home, and another, 22, who lives separately in Newcastle, and another, 15, living at home who is a student.
5 In the extraordinary account you gave of yourself to Mr Healey you said you ran away from home at the age of 10 in the company of a 16-year old boy. You lived on the streets with him and then at his mother's house until you were placed in state care. Your state wardship was discharged when you were 18. You were unhappy in foster care so you returned to your mother and resumed the involvement with your boyfriend, a pattern that continued for five and a half years.
6 You told Mr Healey that you were physically abused by your boyfriend, that you were beaten, stabbed and, at the age of 14 in the fourth month of a pregnancy, he jumped on your abdomen causing you to suffer a miscarriage, although he did not permit you to seek medical attention. Shortly after that incident you returned to your mother, but you frequently went off to stay with what Mr Healey described as "unhelpful associates", and began hitchhiking to Sydney and Melbourne.
7 At the age of 17 you met Bradley Gee, a man who was 15 years your senior. A relationship developed between you, and you came to Victoria to live with him and his friends in St Albans. Eventually you met Angelo Capanis, the deceased, and you had a sexual involvement with him. You told Mr Healey that you never actually told Gee that your relationship was over, but you agreed that Gee might have been jealous about the attention Capanis gave you.
8 You told Mr Healey that you had no major problems in childhood, that you commenced menstruating at the very young age of eight, and that you had a pregnancy at the age of 14, to which I have already referred. You said you had been sexually assaulted by one of your father's associates when you were six. At the age of 17 you were indecently assaulted again and the offender was imprisoned.
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So far as your schooling and employment are concerned, they were seriously affected by the lifestyle that you have led or been forced to lead. You ran away from home at the age of 10 and you were unable to tell
Mr Healey with any certainty the level of schooling you actually achieved.
10 Mr Healey administered some psychological tests, which revealed that you have a full scale IQ of 85. That is to say 84 per cent of people of your age would do better on the test.
11 It is clear that you never enjoyed a normal childhood. One can only say that the tragedy of your upbringing has played some part at least in the reason that you are here before this court.
12 You have prior convictions in the Children's Court, but none since you have become an adult. Mr Healey though that your relationship with Gee provided you with a type of protection that you had never experienced.
13 The law requires that I take into account a number of matters in fixing a sentence in your case. First, the seriousness of the offence. Perjury is a serious offence. The administration of justice requires that people are truthful in what they tell the police and what they say to courts.
14 Your misguided attempt to protect Gee has landed you in the predicament you are presently in. I am required to ensure that the sentence I impose has a deterrent effect on others who might be minded to do similar things, and it must express the community's condemnation of the anti-social behaviour in which you have engaged.
15 On the other side of the coin, the law also requires me to take into account your youth, the fact that you have got no convictions since you became an adult, and to take into account your chances of rehabilitation, and of leading a socially useful life in the future.
16 I must also take into account your plea of guilty. All of those I have considered. However the offence being what it is, it is necessary that a term of imprisonment be imposed. However also in the circumstances it is not necessary that that term of imprisonment be immediately served, and I propose to wholly suspend it.
17 You will be sentenced to be imprisoned for two years and ordered to serve a minimum of nine months before being eligible for parole. That sentence will be wholly suspended for two years. The purpose of this sentence and its suspension is to give you an opportunity to ensure that you do not get into trouble again.
18 I am required by law to explain to you that if you break the law again you will go to gaol for two years. Do you understand that?
[The prisoner assented to the judge’s question and the matter concluded].
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