R v AA (No 4)

[2020] NSWSC 406

Supreme Court

New South Wales

• Amendment notes

Medium Neutral Citation:

R v AA (No 4) [2020] NSWSC 406

Hearing dates:

16 & 23 December 2019

Date of orders:

15 April 2020

Decision date:

15 April 2020

Jurisdiction:

Common Law - Criminal

Before:

Rothman J

Decision:

(1)   In addition to the conditions imposed on 24 December 2019, the Intensive Corrections Order then imposed is subject to the following further additional condition:

(i)   The offender is to be released to home detention for the remaining period of the Intensive Corrections Order and subject to the supervision and reporting regime directed by an officer of Hornsby Community Corrections Order in accordance with its assessment of 29 January 2020.

Catchwords:

CRIME – Sentence – assessment as suitable for home detention – further additional condition to ICO imposed, as foreshadowed in original sentence of 24 December 2019

Cases Cited:

R v AA (No 3) [2019] NSWSC 1892

Category:

Consequential orders

Parties:

Regina (Crown)
AA (a pseudonym) (Offender)

Representation:

Counsel:
M McHugh SC / A McGrath (Crown)
S Buchen SC / J Roy (Offender)

Solicitors:
Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) (Crown)
Watsons Solicitors & Barristers (Offender)

File Number(s):

2016/321937

Publication restriction:

Suppression orders made under s 7(1) of the Court Suppression and NPO Act 2010 (NSW)

Judgment

1. HIS HONOUR: On 24 December 2019, following sentence hearing on 16 and 23 December 2019, the Court sentenced the offender to a term of imprisonment of 2 years, commencing on that date, to be served by intensive correction in the community.

2. The Intensive Corrections Order was imposed following an assessment. The assessment did not include an assessment for home detention, which latter assessment was ordered at that time.

3. The Court received a subsequent assessment, dated 29 January 2020, as a result of the request from the Court of 24 December 2019. Corrective Services NSW has assessed the offender’s accommodation and the risks associated with home detention.

4. Further, Corrective Services NSW will, because of the low risk assessment, supervise the offender at the “T3/low supervision level of the Service Delivery Standards”. Corrective Services NSW assesses the offender as a low risk of reoffending, which reflects the view already expressed by the Court.

5. Nevertheless, as the Court made clear in original sentence remarks[1] , there is a substantial degree of leniency associated with an Intensive Corrections Order. The imposition of home detention, which, despite its title, still provides for a number of bases to be absent from home, provides a little less leniency than would such an order without that condition.

   1. R v AA (No 3) [2019] NSWSC 1892 (“the earlier judgment”)

6. As stated in the earlier judgment, ordinarily an offence of this kind would warrant a full-time custodial sentence. [2] The exceptional nature of the circumstances of its commission of the offence and the subjective circumstances of the offender warranted a sentence that was not a full-time custodial sentence. [3]

   2. Ibid at [139] and [142]

   3. Ibid at [145]-[146].

7. The assessment from Corrective Services expressed the opinion that the offender is suitable to undertake home detention. As a consequence, the Court imposes the additional condition foreshadowed in the sentence imposed on 24 December 2019.

8. The Court orders:

1. That, in addition to the conditions imposed on 24 December 2019, the Intensive Corrections Order then imposed be subject to the following further additional condition:

1. The offender is to be released to home detention for the remaining period of the Intensive Corrections Order and subject to the supervision and reporting regime directed by an officer of Hornsby Community Corrections Order in accordance with its assessment of 29 January 2020.

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Endnotes

Amendments

09 December 2021 - Pseudonym revised.