R v Williams
[2019] ACTSC 383
•20 December 2019
SUPREME COURT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
Case Title: | R v Williams | |
Citation: | [2019] ACTSC 383 | |
Hearing Date: | 11, 20 December 2019 | |
DecisionDate: | 20 December 2019 | |
Before: | Burns J | |
Decision: | See [9]–[10] | |
Catchwords: | CRIMINAL LAW – JURISDICTION, PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Judgment and Punishment – Re-sentence – breach of Good Behaviour Orders – consideration of general deterrence and community protection | |
Legislation Cited: | Crimes (Sentence Administration) Act 2005 (ACT) | |
Parties: | The Queen (Crown) Jaidyn James Norman Williams (Offender) | |
Representation: | Counsel S Janackovic (Crown) J Dempster (Offender) | |
| Solicitors ACT Director of Public Prosecutions (Crown) Aulich Law (Offender) | ||
File Number: | SCC 235 of 2019 | |
BURNS J:
Mr Williams, you have entered a plea of guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (CAN 8818/2019). That offence occurred on 2 June 2019. It refers to what might be described as a “glassing”. That is, you struck the victim in the face with a glass, the glass shattered causing lacerations to the face of the victim. Having viewed the footage of the incident, I am satisfied that what you did was deliberate: it was done deliberately so that the glass would come into contact with the face of the victim, and in those circumstances, it must have been apparent to you that there was a real prospect of injury to the victim.
At the time that you committed that offence, you were subject to
two Good Behaviour Orders as part of suspended sentence orders that were imposed in the ACT Magistrates Court on 12 December 2018. At that time, you entered pleas of guilty to two offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in that Court. They were both particularly serious offences.
You were dealt with in a very lenient fashion by the Magistrate. The Magistrate, quite properly, went out of her Honour’s way in order to try and bring home to you the fact that you were being dealt with quite leniently, and the fact that you were not going to prison as a result of those two offences, was very much a line ball issue. You were given a very significant benefit by not being sent to serve at least some period of
full-time imprisonment with respect to those matters.
The present offence occurred some six months into those two Good Behaviour Orders. I have no doubt that an Intensive Correction Order would be very useful to you and to the community with respect to the present offence. However, at the same time, I have to balance your prospects for rehabilitation against the community's expectation that offences of significant violence will be subject to real punishment. There is a need to impose sentences which not only deter you as an offender from committing offences of violence, but also are calculated to deter others in the community who may be minded to commit this type of offence.
In my view, it is necessary to record a conviction with respect to the present matter. That means that you are in breach of the Good Behaviour Orders imposed by the Magistrate.
I am obliged, under the provisions of the Crimes (Sentence Administration) Act 2005 (ACT), to cancel the Good Behaviour Orders that were imposed by the Magistrate.
I then only have two options. I can either impose the suspended portions of the sentences and, in that case, you would be sentenced to two periods of 12 months and four months' imprisonment, respectively, partially accumulated so as to make a sentence of 14 months' imprisonment. Alternatively, I can re-sentence with respect to those offences.
I note that you have complied, for a short period at any rate, with the terms of the orders that were made by the Magistrate and, as I understand it, you have also completed the community service work that was imposed. For that reason, it is not appropriate to impose the sentences that were imposed by the Magistrate. In my opinion, the appropriate course is to re-sentence you with respect to those matters.
Re-sentence
I will re-sentence you to periods of two months' imprisonment and 14 days' imprisonment, respectively, with respect to those charges (CC 18/4294; CC 18/4293). Those sentences will be served concurrently, and will commence today,
20 December 2019, and expire on 19 February 2020.
I am going to adjourn the sentencing for the most recent offence, the glassing offence (CAN 8818/2019), until 21 February 2020, at which time I will reconsider the question of an Intensive Correction Order with respect to the present offence.
[Speaking directly to offender]
This means that you are going to be in prison now until 19 February 2020. I will then give some consideration to whether I should impose an Intensive Correction Order rather than a term of full-time imprisonment with respect to the most recent offence.
| I certify that the preceding eleven [11] numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Sentence of his Honour Justice Burns. Associate: Date: |
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