TJM Appellant and COMMISSIONER OF QUEENSLAND Respondent POLICE SERVICE

[2024] QDC 75

QUEENSLAND COURTS AND TRIBUNALS

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

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DISTRICT COURT OF QUEENSLAND

APPELLATE JURISDICTION

JUDGE EVERSON

No 179 of 2024

TJM  Appellant

and

COMMISSIONER OF QUEENSLAND  Respondent
POLICE SERVICE

BRISBANE

12.33 PM, WEDNESDAY, 7 FEBRUARY 2024

DAY 1

JUDGMENT

Any rulings in this transcript may be extracted and revised by the presiding Judge.

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HIS HONOUR: This is an appeal, pursuant to section 222 of the Justices Act 1886. At the outset, the prosecution has conceded that the sentence imposed in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on 6 January 2024 is manifestly excessive and the court should re-exercise the sentencing discretion.

The circumstances of the offending were that the appellant pleaded guilty to two charges of contravention of a domestic violence order (aggravated offence) on 27 December 2023 and 5 January 2024.  On the first occasion in breach of a domestic violence order dated 18 July 2022, the appellant attended the residence of his former partner and children. Something has occurred and a triple zero call has been made, causing police to attend the residence and locate the appellant in the main bedroom lying on the bed smoking a cigarette. This breached condition 4 of the DVO which required that he not be within 100 metres of the residence. 

Undeterred, the appellant again breached the DVO in the same way when he arrived at the residence on 27 December 2023, again uninvited. He immediately began to engage with his children and the aggrieved perceived that there wasn’t really any way she could separate him from the children. Ultimately, he didn’t leave and stayed the night. On both occasions he was an unwelcome visitor in circumstances where he flagrantly breached a provision of the DVO.

Particularly aggravating the offending is the fact that he has a three-page criminal history which contains eight entries for breaching DVOs, and only one other entry which is a failure to appear. In each instance, he has been dealt with in the Magistrates Court and he has received penalties ranging from short periods of imprisonment to fines as a consequence of his continued breaches. All but two of the entries are aggravated offences which carry a maximum penalty of imprisonment for five years.

On 22 June 2023, he was sentenced in the Brisbane Magistrates Court for almost identical offending where he turned up at the residence of the aggrieved. He did the same again, resulting in a sentence in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on 22 June 2023. On the first occasion he received a sentence of imprisonment of six months, with a parole eligibility date on the day of sentence. On the second occasion he received a term of imprisonment of five months, with a parole eligibility date on the date of sentence and a declaration of 50 days already served under the sentence.

I take into account the appellant’s early pleas of guilty.  Obviously, considerations of rehabilitation are relevant in circumstances where he was only 26 years of age.  However, his continued contumacious disregard for the DVO is such that considerations of both personal and general deterrence loom very large in the exercise of my sentencing discretion. In my view, notwithstanding his age and early plea, his repeated disregard of domestic violence orders in circumstances where he feels he can just turn up uninvited and impose himself upon the family,  is directly contrary to an important condition of the DVO, and warrants condign sentences.

The offending is similar on each occasion and very similar to recent offending in the past. Having regard to similar sentences set out in the outline of submissions of the respondent I am of the view that, in each instance, an appropriate sentence is that the defendant – that the appellant be resentenced to a term of imprisonment of six months, with each term to be served concurrently. I set a parole release date of 6 March 2024. I declare 32 days from 6 January 2024 to 6 February 2024 inclusive to be time already served under the sentence, and I direct the Registrar to inform the Commission of this declaration.