R v Simpson

[2000] NSWCCA 284

CITATION:	R v Simpson [2000] NSWCCA 284
FILE NUMBER(S):	CCA 60502/99
HEARING DATE(S):	12 July 2000
JUDGMENT DATE:	12 July 2000
PARTIES :	Regina v Anthony SIMPSON
JUDGMENT OF:	Meagher JA at 1; Grove J at 7; Bergin J at 8

LOWER COURT JURISDICTION:	Supreme Court
LOWER COURT FILE NUMBER(S) :	70077/98
LOWER COURT JUDICIAL OFFICER :	Studdert J

COUNSEL :	Crown: L M B Lamprati Appellant: J C Papayanni
SOLICITORS:	Crown: S E O'Connor Appellant: Jeffreys and Associates
CATCHWORDS:	Appeal against conviction - guilty plea - manslaughter - appeal against sentence.
DECISION:	1. Appeal dismissed.

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IN THE COURT OF
CRIMINAL APPEAL

No 60502/99

MEAGHER JA
GROVE J
BERGIN J

Wednesday, 12 July 2000

REGINA v ANTHONY SIMPSON

JUDGMENT

1   MEAGHER JA: This is an appeal by Mr Simpson against the sentence passed on him by Studdert J on 20 August 1999 of a minimum term of six years penal servitude with an additional term of three years.
2   The facts were that Mr Simpson was charged with murder, pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty of manslaughter. The Crown accepted that plea in full satisfaction and discharge of the indictment. Now Mr Simpson appeals to this Court.
3   His plea of guilty must, prima facie, constitute an admission of all essential and equal ingredients of the offence charged. However, a conviction in these circumstances can be challenged on appeal if it can be demonstrated there is no evidence upon which he could have been convicted.
4   The deceased in question met his end by coming into contact with an electric wire system erected by Mr Simpson to protect an area of land on which he was growing marijuana. He was a qualified electrician and therefore, presumably, used to wiring that was potentially lethal. There were exposed electrical wires he had known about for some three years although he had done nothing to make them safe. He was aware in some circumstances, by no means remote, an intruder coming into contact with the fence would suffer fatal shock. He erected no warning signs and at night, when I assume intruders would most likely be around the place, the fence was unlit. A person coming onto the land in the dark would have no means of knowing of the dangers until it was too late.
5   Since those are the unchallenged facts it borders, in my view, on the ludicrous to suggest that there was no evidence upon which Mr Simpson could have been convicted.
6   As to the further submission that his Honour's sentence was excessive, in my view the sentence was within the permissible range. I do not think the learned judge strayed into error. This is particularly so when one bears in mind that manslaughter covers such a wide variety of circumstances, one cannot mark out any clear pattern of sentencing. In my view the appeal should be dismissed.
7   GROVE J: I agree with Mr Justice Meagher.
8   BERGIN J: I agree with Justice Meagher.
9   MEAGHER JA: The order of the Court therefore is the appeal is dismissed.