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District Court 16 December 2021

R v Hatzimanolis

[2021] NSWDC 787

Assault & violenceHomicideDomestic & family violence
CRIME RELEVANT FACTORS ON SENTENCE GUILTY PLEA LONG TERM SCHIZOPHRENIA ATTACK ON HIS FATHER ASSESSMENT OF MORAL CULPABILITY

Citation: R v Hatzimanolis [2021] NSWDC 787
Court: District Court of New South Wales
Date: 16 December 2021
Judge: Haesler DCJ

Background

The offender, a man with a long history of schizophrenia, pleaded guilty to wounding his father with intent to murder him and to contravening a restriction in an Apprehended Domestic Violence Order. The offences occurred on Christmas Eve 2020 in Wollongong.

The offender had been discharged from a psychiatric facility in March 2019 and was subject to a Community Treatment Order. He had not taken his schizophrenia medication in the days before the offence. On the evening in question, he produced a kitchen knife he had brought in his bag, followed his father into a bedroom, and stabbed him in the throat in a deliberate attack driven by delusional beliefs. The father survived only because he drove himself to Wollongong Hospital, where he underwent surgery for serious injuries to his neck and throat.

Although a defence of mental illness was available to the offender, he did not pursue it. He entered his guilty plea in the Local Court, was found fit to plead, and acknowledged his intention to kill his father in a subsequent police interview.

  • How should the offender's long-term schizophrenia affect the assessment of objective seriousness and moral culpability for a planned, premeditated attack?
  • What weight should be given to the causal relationship between the offender's mental illness and the offending?
  • What discount applied for the early guilty plea?
  • Whether special circumstances existed justifying a departure from the standard non-parole period ratio, including the need for the offender to be detained in and released to a mental health facility.
  • What sentence was appropriate for the principal offence of wounding with intent to murder (maximum: 25 years; standard non-parole period: 10 years under the Crimes Act 1900)?

Decision

Haesler DCJ found the offence was objectively serious. It was planned and premeditated: the offender had carried the knife to his father's home, ambushed him in a bedroom, and inflicted a wound to the throat intended to cause death. The victim's survival depended entirely on his own desperate efforts. However, the judge accepted that the motivation for the attack was entirely delusional and directly caused by the offender's untreated schizophrenia, which significantly reduced his moral culpability.

The court held that where a causal relationship between mental illness and offending is established, a sentencing court must factor mental state into the assessment of both objective seriousness and moral culpability, drawing on Muldrock v The Queen and Tepania v R. The judge noted that a staged approach to sentencing, treating each consideration in isolation, risks double-counting and is to be avoided. Instead, all relevant matters must be synthesised into a single sentence.

The judge applied a 25% discount for the early guilty plea. Special circumstances were found to exist, principally because of the offender's need for ongoing psychiatric treatment during custody and the importance of structured release to a mental health facility. This justified extending the parole period beyond the standard ratio. Haesler DCJ recommended that the offender be transferred to a correctional patient status as soon as possible so that his schizophrenia could be treated effectively, noting that the prospect of parole would depend heavily on the success of that treatment.

The court also noted the significant impact on the father, who provided a victim impact statement describing physical, emotional, and psychological harm. The judge acknowledged the complexity of the victim's position as the father of a person with severe mental illness, whose long-term welfare was also a concern expressed in the statement.

Orders Made

  • Contravening an AVO (summary offence): convicted and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, commencing 24 December 2020.
  • Wounding with intent to murder: convicted and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of five years and six months, commencing 24 February 2021.
  • Eligible for parole consideration on 23 August 2026.
  • Parole period of three years and six months; total sentence expiring 23 February 2030.
  • Special circumstances found; non-parole period set below the standard ratio accordingly.
  • The offender was informed of the operation of the Crimes (High Risk Offenders) Act 2006, which applies to this offence and could result in continued detention or conditions after sentence expiry if an order is made in the community interest.

Key Takeaways

  • A causal connection between an offender's mental illness and their offending is a significant mitigating factor, and a sentencing court is required to take that mental state into account when assessing both objective seriousness and moral culpability, even where the offender has pleaded guilty rather than pursuing a mental illness defence.

  • The District Court confirmed that sentencing is a synthesis, not a staged checklist. Treating aggravating and mitigating factors as discrete categories risks double-counting and does not accurately reflect the holistic balancing exercise the law requires.

  • Special circumstances can be established where an offender's psychiatric condition means a longer parole period is necessary to ensure adequate supervision, treatment, and supported reintegration into the community following release.

  • Where an offender with severe, chronic mental illness commits a serious offence while unmedicated and subject to delusional beliefs, reduced moral culpability may result in a sentence meaningfully below the standard non-parole period, even for a planned attack involving an intention to kill.

  • The Crimes (High Risk Offenders) Act 2006 requires sentencing courts to draw an offender's attention to the possibility of post-sentence detention or supervision orders, though the existence of that regime is not a matter to be taken into account as a mitigating factor in fixing the sentence itself.

Legislation and Cases Referenced

Legislation:
- Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), s 27 (wounding with intent to murder; maximum 25 years; standard non-parole period 10 years)
- Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW), s 14(1) (contravening AVO restriction)
- Crimes (High Risk Offenders) Act 2006 (NSW)
- Mental Health Act 2007 (NSW)
- Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020 (NSW)

Cases:
- Muldrock v The Queen (2011) 244 CLR 120; [2011] HCA 39
- Veen v R (No 2) (1988) 164 CLR 465; [1988] HCA 14
- Markarian v The Queen [2005] HCA 5; (2005) 228 CLR 357
- Elturk v R [2014] NSWCCA 61
- Tepania v R [2018] NSWCC 247
- DPP v De La Rosa [2010] NSWCCA 194; (2010) 79 NSWLR 1
- McCullough v R [2009] NSWCA 95
- Engert v R (1995) 84 A Crim R 67
- Courtney v R [2007] NSWCCA 195; 172 A Crim R 371