The Queen v Couch

[1992] QCA 233

[1992] QCA 233

COURT OF APPEAL

MACROSSAN CJ
DAVIES JA
PINCUS  JA

CA No 37 of 1992

THE QUEEN

v.

DARRELL JAMES COUCH     (Appellant)

BRISBANE

16 JULY 1992

JUDGMENT

THE CHIEF JUSTICE: This is an application for leave to appeal against sentence following a conviction on 9 January 1992. The applicant  had  been  charged  with  murder  as  a  result  of  a death occurring in December 1990.  He was found guilty  after trial of manslaughter and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, the sentencing Judge saying that he took into account that  the  applicant  had  already  served  13  months  in prison.  The learned sentencing  Judge also  expressly  took  into account the fact that the applicant was affected by alcohol at the time  the offence  was  committed.

The applicant had some criminal history but there were no offences of violence.  The material showed the offences, such as there were, occurred between 1963 and 1968.  He was a 45 year old. The case, it seems to me, was a bad one, judged in terms of the possible circumstances which can arise in manslaughter cases.

In brief, the applicant and the deceased had been arguing at the applicant's residence, or near the front of it, for some ten minutes or so. The applicant had a loaded shotgun and he intentionally discharged it when the deceased was about a mere four or five feet away from him.  He knew the gun was loaded.  His claim later was that he intended to fire it over the head
of the deceased. The jury was obviously not satisfied as to the intention relevant on a murder count.

Each manslaughter case must be judged on its own circumstances.  There was no immediate emergency in this case occurring prior to the applicant's discharging of the weapon.  It is not as though the deceased made any threatening movements towards the applicant.  The dispute had continued for some ten minutes or so and the weapon was then fired at point blank range, the main effect of the blast taking the deceased in the chest.

Obviously a wide range of sentences will be applicable to cases of manslaughter.  Even allowing for the effect of the 13 months spent in custody prior to sentence, I am not persuaded that the term of 10 years imprisonment imposed by the learned Judge was excessive so that it should be interfered with and I would refuse the application.

PINCUS JA:   I agree.

DAVIES JA:  I agree.

THE CHIEF JUSTICE:  The application is refused.