Citation: R v Graham Anthony George Sloane [2017] NSWSC 152
Court: Supreme Court of New South Wales
Date: 2 March 2017
Judge(s): Wilson J
Background
The offender, a man in his late sixties, was convicted by jury on 9 February 2017 of murdering Renee Mitchell on Remembrance Day 2014 in Windale, New South Wales. The offender had come to know Mrs Mitchell and her family through his late father, a former neighbour. Following a falling-out in late 2013 after the offender made offensive remarks about Mrs Mitchell, he had been unwelcome at the family home.
On 11 November 2014, the offender visited the Mitchell home uninvited on two occasions. That evening, he drove Mrs Mitchell from her home to a nearby reserve. The court found she left under compulsion. At the reserve, the offender fatally stabbed her, inflicting five significant stab wounds and a total of 16 wounds.
At trial, the offender raised a partial defence of substantial impairment by abnormality of mind under the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), which would have reduced the conviction to manslaughter. The jury rejected that defence and returned a verdict of murder. Sentencing then proceeded before Wilson J.
Legal Issues
- What facts relevant to sentence were established beyond reasonable doubt following the jury's verdict?
- Whether the partial defence of substantial impairment, though rejected by the jury, retained any continuing relevance to the assessment of moral culpability at sentence.
- Whether the offender's mental illness reduced his moral culpability, and if so, to what degree.
- How the standard non-parole period of 20 years for murder applied in the circumstances of this offending.
- Whether the offender's advanced age, vulnerability in custody, and mental illness warranted a finding of special circumstances, allowing a variation to the standard ratio between non-parole period and balance of sentence.
Decision
Wilson J determined the relevant facts adversely to the offender to the criminal standard (beyond reasonable doubt), and accepted mitigating matters raised by the offender only on the balance of probabilities, in accordance with established authority. The court found that Mrs Mitchell left her home under compulsion, most likely coerced by the offender who, by his own later admission to mental health professionals, had a knife in his car that day.
On the question of mental illness, the court accepted that, while the jury had rejected substantial impairment as a partial defence, the offender's mental illness was causally connected to the offending and remained relevant to assessing moral culpability at sentence. This reduced, though did not eliminate, the weight to be given to denunciation and general deterrence. The absence of any identifiable motive for the killing was also noted as a concerning feature of the offence.
The court treated this offending as falling in the mid-range of objective seriousness for murder, taking into account the brutal and unprovoked nature of the attack, the offender's history of violence (including a prior conviction for a serious assault), the breach of conditional liberty, and the complete absence of remorse or insight. The offender's advanced age, likely vulnerability in custody, and mental illness were acknowledged as ameliorating factors and incorporated into the overall length of sentence, rather than forming the basis for a separate special circumstances finding.
The court declined to make a special circumstances finding, noting that the parole period resulting from the standard sentencing ratio would be adequate given the overall length of the sentence imposed.
Orders Made
- The offender was convicted of the murder of Renee Mitchell on 11 November 2014 at Windale.
- Sentenced to imprisonment with a non-parole period of 18 years and a balance of term of 6 years (total sentence: 24 years).
- Sentence to date from 12 November 2014; non-parole period to expire 11 November 2032; total sentence to expire 11 November 2038.
- The offender was advised that the Crimes (High Risk Offenders) Act 2006 (NSW) applies to the offence of murder.
Key Takeaways
- A jury's rejection of a partial defence of substantial impairment does not preclude a sentencing court from considering an offender's mental illness as a factor bearing on moral culpability; the two inquiries serve different purposes.
- Under the sentencing framework established in Muldrock v The Queen (2011) 244 CLR 120, the standard non-parole period of 20 years for murder operates as a statutory guidepost, not a rigid starting point, and may be departed from where the facts warrant.
- Where an offender's mental illness is found to have played a causal role in the offending, the principles of general deterrence and denunciation carry reduced, though not negligible, weight in the sentencing calculus.
- Sufficient evidence existed on the facts, including the offender's own statements to mental health professionals, to support findings about the circumstances of the killing even in the absence of direct witnesses to the fatal attack.
- Advanced age and likely vulnerability in custody can be taken into account in calibrating the overall sentence without necessarily triggering a formal special circumstances finding under s 44(2) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW).
Legislation and Cases Referenced
Legislation:
- Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), ss 18, 19A
- Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW), ss 3A, 44(2) and Division 1A of Part 4
- Mental Health (Forensic Provisions) Act 1990 (NSW)
- Crimes (High Risk Offenders) Act 2006 (NSW)
Cases:
- Muldrock v The Queen [2011] HCA 39; 244 CLR 120
- The Queen v Olbrich [1999] HCA 54; 199 CLR 270
- R v Isaacs (1997) 41 NSWLR 374
- Barton v R [2009] NSWCCA 164
- Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions v De La Rosa [2010] NSWCCA 194; 205 A Crim R 1
- R v McLean [2001] NSWCCA 58; 121 A Crim R 484
- R v Quatami [2001] NSWCCA 35; (2001) 127 A Crim R 369
- R v Holyoak (1995) 82 A Crim R 502
- R v Graham Anthony Sloane [2000] NSWSC 1300