R v Watson

[2000] VSC 419

SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA
CRIMINAL DIVISION	Not Restricted

No.1444 of 2000

THE QUEEN	Prosecution
v
GRAHAM WATSON	Accused

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JUDGE:	Teague J
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	25, 26, 27, 28, 29 September, 4 October 2000
DATE OF SENTENCE:	10 October 2000
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	The Queen v Graham Watson
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2000] VSC 419

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Crime – Intentionally causing serious injury – Setting victim on fire – 6 years – 4 years minimum.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Prosecution	J. Dickson	Office of Public Prosecution
For the Accused	D. Drake	Victorian Legal Aid

HIS HONOUR:

1. Graham Watson, you have been found guilty by a juryof having intentionally caused serious injury to Helenb Forsyth on 9 September 1999.

1. You met Helen Forsyth in 1995.  On and off over the next four years, you lived separately and with her in a defacto relationship.  On 9 September 1999 she was livingwith you in a rented unit at 6 Lewis Street, Frankston.

1. On that day you and she helped the owner clean up a vacated flat.  Friends called in and you had some beer together.  Later the four of you went to the home of the friends for a barbecue, then returned to Lewis street.  A bonfire was lit in the back yard there.  Getting the fire going proved to be difficult.  You produced a can of two-stroke petrol that you kept in the bathroom.  You splashed some of the contents on the fire and it did get the fire going.  Helen Forsyth became worried that part of the fence near the fire might be burned.  She got a hose.  Itwas not long enough to move around the fire.  She used the hose from a distance to spray water on the fence.  Some water  may have gone on the fire or on you, but she did not intend that.  Her use of the hose annoyed you.  It was a trivial incident, but it seems to have mattered to you.

1. A short time after she turned  off the hose, you followed her with the can of petrol.  You splashed some petrol from the can on her clothes.  She went into the bedroom to change her clothes.  As she was changing her jeans sitting on the bed, you splashed more petrol to her clothes from nearby.  You then took out a cigarette lighter and flicked it alight.  The flames moved quickly to her.  She yelled at you to put out the flames.  Initially you refused to help and told her she could die.  She tried to quell the flames, herself.  You then assisted in getting the flames out.  That was difficult task because of the reigniting of the splashed fuel.  After the flames were out, you were challenged by John Kercheval as to what you had done.  You claimed to him it was an accident.  You hit him in the face when he said it was not.

1. You displayed a curious ambivalence in the period after you set Helen Forsyth alight, including when you spoke about Helen Forsyth in front of your friends and when answering police questions.  At times you were supportive and accepting of blame.  At other times you were abusive, callous, uncaring and dismissive.

1. Your actions caused full or deep partial thickness burns to over 30 percent of Helen Forsyth's body.  There were burns to her face, neck, ear, both legs and both hands.  Substantial areas needed grafting.  She was in the Alfred Hospital for about five weeks and in the Caulfield Hospital for about four weeks.  The burns will have significant long term effects, including scarring, reduceduse of limbs, limited capacity to move and the necessity for an amputation of a finger.

1. I have read carefully the victim impact statement lodged by the Helen Forsyth and the accompanying documents. I have noted in greater detail the extent of her injuries and of their consequences in my reasons for making an order for compensation under s.86 of the Sentencing Act, which I now hand down.

1. I am prepared to accept that you have shown a degree of remorse.  I allow in mitigation that you have at all times been prepared to plead guilty to recklessly causing serious injury.  I also allow in mitigation for the circumstance that it is in protection, not mainstream, that you have already served time and will have to serve more time.

1. You were born in Scotland in April 1966 and are now 34 years of age.  You and two sisters were raised by responsible parents and your parents remain supportive of you.  You have responded only in part to their efforts to get you to become a responsible member of the community.

1. You were in your teens when you came with them from Scotland and settled in Australia.  Until about ten years ago, you did courses in catering and worked accordingly.  There are several commendable references provided for work done by you during the 1980s.  After you moved out of home, you chose to turn to a lifestyle where the main focus was on the drinking of alcohol.

1. I have noted your three appearances before Frankston Magistrates' Court in the 1990s leading to convictions,but not imprisonment, for alcohol related offences.  Your judgment on the night that you set fire to petrol splashed on Helen Forsyth was clearly impaired by the amount of beer that you had had to drink in the previous few hours.

1. I have noted that while in custody you appear to have made some attempts to rehabilitate yourself by doing appropriate courses.

1. In deciding upon the length of the term of your imprisonment, I must allow appropriately for considerations of punishment, of general deterrence and of special deterrence.

1. I sentence you to six years' imprisonment.  I fix a period of four years before you will be eligible for parole.

1. I declare that you have spent 397 days in prison up to today, and I direct that that declaration be noted in the records of the court.

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