R v Weston
[2012] VCC 1004
•20 July 2012
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-12-00238
| THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| NARELLE WESTON |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE HOWIE | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 16 July 2012 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 20 July 2012 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | R v. Weston | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2019] VCC 1004 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Catchwords:
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director | Mr D. Bosso | Office of Public Prosecution |
| For the Accused | Mr H. Rattray | Slades and Parsons |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Narelle. Weston, you have pleaded guilty to trafficking in a drug of dependence, 3,4‑methylenedioxy amphetamine (MDMA), in a quantity that was not less than a large commercial quantity.
2 This offence was committed between 8 and 19 May 2011. It arose out of a relationship that you had with Raymond Leguir, who you met in early 2011. Apparently you were aware that he was involved in selling drugs but were, as your counsel Mr Rattray put it, "enamoured" with him and continued in the relationship.
3 On or around 8 May 2011, when you were in Sydney, you met with a man you knew as Mick, whose actual name is Patrick Gill, and he gave you a bag containing approximately 12,000 Ecstasy tablets which he told you to take to Raymond Leguir. You drove to Melbourne and on 9 May you met with Leguir at his home in Sunbury and gave him approximately 10,000 of the Ecstasy tablets keeping approximately 2,000 for yourself. By that time your relationship with Leguir was disintegrating.
4 Subsequently police found quantities of the Ecstasy tablets. On 14 May they found 10 tablets concealed in your bra when you were searched after being arrested on an outstanding warrant. On 17 May approximately 1,500 tablets were located in a motor car that you had been driving and on 19 May another 84 tablets were located in another vehicle.
5 You agreed to attend the police station on 19 May where you admitted conveying a large amount of Ecstasy tablets.
6 When interviewed you made admissions of having been in possession of 11,000 Ecstasy tablets and having kept approximately 1,700 to 2,000 tablets. Your purpose in retaining the tablets was not clearly explained in the interview. While you said, "They could stay there and get handed back or handed money", and $34,000 was to be handed over for them. You also said that you had not sold Ecstasy tablets before and when asked, "What were you intending to do with the tablets?", you answered, "I don't know". In the statement that you signed on 19 May you said, "The arrangement was I either return the tablets or the money, there was $34,000 agreed to for the pills".
7 Police executed a warrant at the house of Mr Leguir in Sunbury on 19 May and located 9668 Ecstasy tablets.
8 Mr Leguir was arrested on 19 May and interviewed. He made full admissions. On 21 October he pleaded guilty to several charges including trafficking a drug of dependence in a large commercial quantity. He was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for this offence. I am advised that to this point in time Patrick Gill, who provided the tablets, has not been located.
9 The Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 provides that one kilogram of the drug 3,4‑methylenedioxy amphetamine (MDMA) is a large commercial quantity. The total quantity of this drug in the 12,000 tablets that you had in your possession and conveyed from Sydney to Sunbury was 3.5 kilograms. You told police that you had been given many more tablets than you had expected. By your plea you acknowledge that you trafficked in this drug in that it was in your possession for sale.
10 The role that you played was principally that of a courier bringing the drug from Gill in Sydney to Leguir in Melbourne. You were not, however, a mere courier as you were in a relationship with Leguir, albeit a disintegrating one at that stage, knew that he dealt in illicit drugs and kept some of the drug yourself, not for personal consumption, but with at least an awareness of the possibility of selling the tablets even if you had no previous experience of such activity and no developed plan as to how to go about it.
11 Trafficking in illicit drugs of dependence is a serious criminal offence. The maximum penalty provided by the law for trafficking in a quantity not less than a large commercial quantity is life imprisonment.
12 You are now 27 years of age, your date of birth being 10 September 1984. Although you have a seriously disturbed and an unstable personal history, you have no prior criminal convictions. Your involvement in this crime arose from the relationship you had formed with Mr Leguir. Your principal involvement was to transport the drugs from the source in Sydney to Mr Leguir in Melbourne. In the criminal enterprise both Gill who provided the tablets and Leguir who received them were those principally involved and most to benefit from the sale of the tablets.
13 While your personal responsibility for your criminal conduct is not denied, it is appropriate to consider your involvement in this conduct in the light of your troubled personal history, particularly your history of mental illness. The reports of two psychiatrists, Dr Maria Kiang, a treating psychiatrist with North‑western Mental Health, and Dr Danny Sullivan, a consultant psychiatrist who assessed you on 17 June 2012, reveal that you have a serious mental illness. Dr Kiang reports that you have been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, substance abuse, post‑traumatic stress disorder and dependent personality traits with psychosis and mood disorder. She states that you have "had multiple inpatient and outpatient admissions to various psychiatrist services across Melbourne since 2002 when she first presented with psychotic and depressive symptoms with suicidal ideation in the context of using speed and multiple psychosocial stressors".
14 It appears that there have been at least three admissions as an involuntary patient.
15 The origins of this decade or more of mental illness may be found in your family history and turbulent childhood and teenage years. Dr Kiang reports that there is an extensive family history of mental illness. When your parents separated when you were 2 years old you remained with your mother who re‑partnered within a year of the separation. You have had only sporadic contact with your father and brother. You say that you experienced sexual and physical abuse as a child from your step‑father. Although a competent student, your education, particularly secondary education, was disrupted and you attended three different secondary schools leaving in Year 10 when you ran away from home at the age of 14. You lived on the streets in a period of sustained homelessness until you were 17. Your first child was born when you were 17. His father was a man with whom you lived on the street and with whom you had a relationship lasting 4 years. Since he was 2 your son now aged 11 has been cared for by your mother. You have had two further children to different fathers, a daughter now aged 7, with whom you have no contact, and a son aged 3, who resides in England with the extended family of his father. You are currently in a relationship which Dr Kiang describes as supportive.
16 Since being remanded in custody you have been managed in the Marrmak Unit, a psychiatric unit of the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, and have been treated with antipsychotic medication. Dr Sullivan reports that your condition has predominantly stabilised. Although he considers that incarceration weighs more heavily on you than a person without a mental disorder, it does appear that in the Marrmak Unit you are receiving treatment appropriate for your mental illness.
17 The serious nature of the offence requires proper weight to be given to just punishment and to deterring you from further offending and deterring others from committing similar offences. Your ready admissions to the police, the assistance provided by your statement and your plea of guilty are consistent with genuine remorse for your offending. Having regard to your relatively young age and lack of previous criminal history, and to your mental illness, your rehabilitation is also an important matter to consider.
18 Both Dr Kiang and Dr Sullivan advise that you require intensive psychiatric treatment, mainly in terms of sustained compliance with medication. While both consider that incarceration will be difficult for you because of your mental disorder, it is also apparent, as Dr Kiang noted, that you have had difficulties in engaging in therapeutic treatment in the community. I draw attention to Dr Sullivan's opinion that you should never again be prescribed stimulant medications and as you have a propensity to abuse benzodiazepines, should they be prescribed it should be sparingly and under close supervision and monitoring.
19 While I requested submissions from the prosecution on sentencing range, I consider that the submitted range of 5 to 7 years imprisonment with a non‑parole period of 3 to 5 years does not give sufficient weight to the importance of imposing a sentence that will facilitate your rehabilitation.
20 There are proper reasons for you to receive a lesser sentence than Raymond Leguir. Your role in the offence was a lesser role than his. At the time of his offence he was on bail for other offences. Furthermore, your significant mental illness is a reason for disparity in the sentences.
21 You are convicted of the offence and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 4 years.
22 I fix the period of 2 years as the period during which you shall not be eligible to be released on parole.
23 I direct that the period of 107 days during which you have been in custody in relation to this proceeding be reckoned as a period of imprisonment already served under the sentence.
24 I direct that copies of the reports of Dr Kiang and Dr Sullivan be forwarded to the Corrections authorities.
25 You have received a less severe sentence because of your plea of guilty. The sentence that would have been imposed but for your plea of guilty is a term of imprisonment of 5 years with a non‑parole period of 3 years.
26 Yes, you may be seated, Ms Weston.
27 MR RATTRAY: No, Your Honour, no submissions from me.
28 HIS HONOUR: Yes. Ms Weston may be removed, thank you.
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