R v Reid

[2022] NZHC 2661

IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND ROTORUA REGISTRY

I TE KŌTI MATUA O AOTEAROA

TE ROTORUA-NUI-A-KAHUMATAMOMOE ROHE

CRI-2020-063-2105

[2022] NZHC 2661

THE KING

v

KRISTINA REID

Hearing:	14 October 2022
Appearances:	A McConachy for Crown M Jenkins for Defendant
Judgment:	14 October 2022

RE-SENTENCING NOTES OF LANG J

Solicitors:

Crown Solicitor, Rotorua

R v REID [2022] NZHC 2661 [14 October 2022]

[1]    Ms Reid, you pleaded guilty to one charge of kidnapping and one charge of participating in an organised criminal group. On 23 September 2022, Campbell J sentenced you to seven months home detention on specified conditions.1

[2]    The address at which you were to serve the sentence of home detention is no longer available to you. You have therefore been in custody since shortly after you were sentenced. The Department of Corrections now seeks an order under s 80F of the Sentencing Act 2002 (the Act) cancelling the sentence of home detention and imposing a sentence of imprisonment in its place.

[3]    You accept that the application must be granted. However, you seek an order under s 80I of the Act that you be granted leave to apply for the sentence of imprisonment to be substituted for one of home detention should you be able to find a suitable address at which to serve that form of sentence.

The sentence

[4]    The sentencing Judge took a starting point of three years imprisonment.2 He reduced this by 20 months to reflect mitigating factors personal to you3 This resulted in a sentence of 16 months imprisonment. After determining that a sentence of home detention was appropriate, the Judge made several adjustments that produced the end sentence of seven months home detention.4

Re-sentence

[5]    In re-sentencing you I take the Judge’s end sentence of 16 months imprisonment to be appropriate. I decline to adopt the Crown’s suggestion that this should be increased by removing the discount the Judge applied to reflect remorse and your desire to rehabilitate yourself. The circumstances surrounding the loss of your home detention address are sufficiently unclear that I am not prepared to penalise you in the way the Crown suggests I should.

1      R v Reid [2022] NZHC 2440.

2 At [17].

3 At [27].

[6]    However, it is not necessary to reduce the sentence to reflect time spent serving the sentence of home detention because you have been in custody since shortly after the sentence of home detention was imposed on 23 September 2022. The prison authorities will take this fact into account when determining your release date.

Sentence

[7]    I make orders under s 80F(4)(d) of the Act cancelling the sentence of home detention and imposing concurrent sentences of 16 months imprisonment on each charge in its place.

[8]    The Crown submits I should not make an order granting you leave to apply for home detention. It points out that you have several recorded breaches of your bail conditions and the fact that you lost your place in the rehabilitative facility on the present occasion also means you are no longer suitable for a sentence of home detention. I acknowledge the force of the Crown’s submissions. However, I also note that Campbell J was concerned to ensure that you had an opportunity to rehabilitate yourself.5

[9]    I am therefore prepared to go along with the approach the Judge adopted. Practical considerations are, however, very much against you. If you are to obtain a suitable address it will need to be at a residential facility where you can be closely supervised and monitored. It is not easy to gain a placement to such facilities. Furthermore, you are now effectively two months into what will be an eight month sentence because you will be entitled to automatic release after serving one-half of your sentence. This means that, unless you find a suitable address very quickly, there is no realistic prospect a sentence of home detention will be available to you. However, I leave that matter in your hands.

[10]   I make an order under s 80I of the Act granting you leave to apply for the sentence of imprisonment to be converted to a sentence of home detention should you find a suitable address at which to serve such a sentence.

[11]Stand down

Lang J