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District Court 20 March 2025

R v Hitch

[2025] NSWDC 287

Assault & violenceTheft & propertyDomestic & family violence
CRIME SENTENCE AGGRAVATED BREAK AND ENTER ENTER DWELLING HOUSE WITH INTENT CHOKE COMMON ASSAULT

Citation: R v Hitch [2025] NSWDC 287
Court: District Court of New South Wales
Date: 20 March 2025
Judge: Bourke SC DCJ

Background

The offender, a man in his mid-thirties, had been in an on-and-off relationship of approximately eight months with a woman referred to as "AB", who lived in Muswellbrook with her three children. The offender was staying at her home but was not on the lease. On 1 December 2023, the victim told the offender she no longer wished to be in a relationship with him.

Over the following days, from 2 to 4 December 2023, the offender committed a series of escalating offences against the victim. These included breaking into her home on two separate occasions after she had locked him out, assaulting her, making threats, and on one occasion choking her. An apprehended domestic violence order (ADVO) was already in place at the time of several of these incidents.

The offender pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to all charges and was brought before the District Court for sentencing.

  • What aggregate sentence was appropriate for multiple serious domestic violence offences committed across several incidents over a short period?
  • How should the standard non-parole period for aggravated break and enter offences inform the sentencing exercise?
  • To what extent should the offences be accumulated or served concurrently, having regard to totality principles?
  • What weight should be given to the offender's plea of guilty, personal circumstances, and prospects for rehabilitation?

Decision

Bourke SC DCJ sentenced the offender on six principal charges, with additional offences taken into account on two Form 1 documents. The principal charges included two counts of aggravated break and enter (each carrying a maximum of 20 years and a five-year standard non-parole period), intentionally choking (maximum five years), entering a dwelling with intent to intimidate (maximum 10 years), common assault, and contravening an ADVO. The court applied a 25% discount across all sentences to reflect the utilitarian value of the early guilty plea.

The court found that a degree of notional accumulation of sentences was warranted because the offences arose from distinct incidents across several days, rather than a single transaction. At the same time, the court was mindful that the aggregate sentence should not be so crushing as to extinguish the offender's prospects of rehabilitation, which the court identified as a significant factor in the sentencing exercise.

Indicative head sentences ranged from three months for the assault to two years and eight months for the first aggravated break and enter count. Taking totality into account, the court imposed an aggregate head sentence of three years and three months, with a non-parole period of one year and ten months.

Orders Made

  • Aggregate head sentence of three years and three months, commencing 9 December 2023, expiring 8 March 2027
  • Non-parole period of one year and ten months, expiring 8 October 2025
  • Indicative sentences recorded for each individual offence (after 25% plea discount):
  • H506 Seq 4 (aggravated break and enter, with Form 1): head sentence two years eight months; non-parole period 18 months
  • H176 Seq 1 (aggravated break and enter, with Form 1): head sentence two years five months; non-parole period 16 months
  • H176 Seq 7 (intentionally choke): head sentence one year eight months
  • H176 Seq 10 (enter dwelling with intent to intimidate): head sentence 18 months
  • H506 Seq 1 (assault, s 166 certificate): head sentence three months
  • H176 Seq 5 (contravene ADVO, s 166 certificate): head sentence four months

Key Takeaways

  • A 25% discount on sentence was applied across all counts, reflecting the full utilitarian value of a plea of guilty entered at the earliest opportunity.
  • Where domestic violence offences are committed across multiple distinct incidents, some degree of notional accumulation of indicative sentences is appropriate, even when the overall period of offending is short.
  • Totality principles require the sentencing court to examine the aggregate criminality and moderate accumulation where necessary to avoid a result that is disproportionate or that destroys reasonable prospects of rehabilitation.
  • The District Court treated rehabilitation as a significant sentencing consideration in this matter, and that assessment directly influenced the extent of accumulation applied.
  • Standard non-parole periods and maximum penalties for aggravated break and enter offences served as guideposts in the court's reasoning, consistent with their statutory function under the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999.

Legislation and Cases Referenced

Legislation
- Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), ss 37(1A), 111(1), 112(2)
- Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW)
- Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW), s 14(1)
- Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW), s 166

Cases
- Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) v De La Rosa [2010] NSWCCA 194
- BP v R [2010] NSWCCA 159