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District Court 13 April 2007

R v Eatts

[2007] NSWDC 116

Assault & violenceTheft & propertyPublic order & justice offences
CRIMES SENTENCING MULTIPLE OFFENCES ARMED ROBBERY CARJACKING ESCAPE

Citation: R v Eatts [2007] NSWDC 116
Court: District Court of New South Wales
Date: 13 April 2007
Judge(s): Goldring DCJ

Background

The offender, Steven Aaron Eatts, pleaded guilty in the Local Court to a large number of serious offences and was committed to the District Court for sentence. The Crown presented a fresh indictment containing sixteen counts; the court ultimately convicted the offender on fourteen offences and also took into account additional offences listed on a Form 1 (a procedural mechanism allowing a court to consider offences not on the indictment when passing sentence, without recording separate convictions for them).

The offences spanned a series of robberies, aggravated robberies and armed robberies committed across inner Sydney in 2005, involving knife-wielding hold-ups at hotels, retail stores and convenience stores, as well as a carjacking. The offending involved threats and violence directed at lone workers. The series concluded with an offence of escaping lawful custody.

The offender is Aboriginal, and the court noted his significant history of mental illness as a background factor relevant to sentencing.

  • What head sentences and non-parole periods were appropriate across fourteen convictions and multiple Form 1 offences, bearing in mind the principles of totality and concurrency?
  • To what extent should the offender's mental illness affect the weight given to general deterrence?
  • How should the guilty pleas, entered at the earliest opportunity, reduce the sentences that would otherwise have been imposed?
  • Whether to partially accumulate sentences, and if so, on which counts?
  • Whether a compensation order in favour of victims was appropriate in the circumstances?

Decision

The court applied a utilitarian discount of twenty-five per cent to reflect the early guilty pleas, noting their significant practical value in a matter involving numerous serious charges. The court indicated that, absent those pleas, it would have imposed substantially longer terms across the key counts.

On the question of mental illness, the court drew on established principles (including those in R v Fernando) recognising that where an offender suffers from genuine mental illness, general deterrence carries reduced weight. This was particularly relevant to the escape offence, where the court would ordinarily have emphasised the community's interest in deterring escapes, especially given the offender's prior conviction for the same type of offence. The mental illness factor moderated that approach.

The bulk of the sentences were ordered to run concurrently. Counts covering the core robberies attracted a non-parole period of four years within a total term of seven and a half years. The most serious count (robbery with malicious infliction of actual bodily harm, which also carried the Form 1 offences) attracted a non-parole period of five years within a total term of nine years, commencing one year after the concurrent sentences began. The escape offence was accumulated on the last sentence to expire, reflecting the principle that escape from lawful custody must be treated seriously, but with the non-parole period reduced from two years to one year on totality grounds.

The court declined to make a compensation order. It accepted that compensation was in principle appropriate but concluded that an order would serve no practical purpose given the offender's lengthy imprisonment and lack of financial means.

Orders Made

  • Convicted on fourteen counts; Form 1 offences taken into account.
  • Counts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 16: non-parole period of four years commencing 17 June 2007, expiring 16 June 2011; total term of seven and a half years, expiring 16 December 2014 (concurrent).
  • Count 9 (robbery with malicious infliction of actual bodily harm, inclusive of Form 1 offences): non-parole period of five years commencing 17 June 2008, expiring 16 June 2013; total term of nine years, expiring 16 June 2017.
  • Escape from lawful custody: non-parole period of one year commencing 17 June 2013, expiring 16 June 2014; total term of four years, expiring 16 June 2017 (accumulated on last sentence to expire).
  • First eligible date for parole: 16 June 2014.
  • No compensation order made.

Key Takeaways

  • Where an offender suffers from mental illness, the sentencing court may afford reduced weight to general deterrence, even for an offence (such as escape from lawful custody) that would ordinarily attract strong deterrence-based reasoning.
  • Early guilty pleas to multiple serious charges carry significant utilitarian value, and a full twenty-five per cent discount may be applied even in cases involving extensive and violent offending.
  • Partial accumulation of sentences is appropriate where the most serious offending warrants a total term that would not be achieved by concurrency alone, but the principle of totality may still operate to reduce individual components such as non-parole periods.
  • A compensation order may properly be declined where the offender's circumstances make enforcement entirely impractical, even though the victims' entitlement to compensation is acknowledged in principle.
  • The Form 1 procedure allows a sentencing court to take multiple additional offences into account on a single count, which the court here applied to the most serious robbery count.

Legislation and Cases Referenced

Legislation
- Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW)

Cases
- R v Fernando (1992) 76 A Crim R 58 (principles relevant to sentencing Aboriginal offenders with mental illness)
- R v Gordon [2004] NSWCCA 45
- Pearce v The Queen (1998) 194 CLR 610 (sentencing for multiple offences)
- R v Henry (1999) 46 NSWLR 346 (sentencing for armed robbery)