Citation: R v Ingrey [2025] NSWDC 367
Court: District Court of New South Wales
Date: 28 August 2025
Judge: Scotting DCJ
Background
The offender, a 32-year-old Indigenous man, appeared for sentencing after pleading guilty to four offences arising from a domestic relationship with the victim. The relationship began in approximately August 2023, and the couple lived together at the victim's Maroubra residence. They have a nine-month-old daughter together, and the victim has a son from a prior relationship.
The offending occurred across two incidents in early 2024. In the first, on 4 March 2024, the offender kicked the victim in the knee when she attempted to end the relationship, causing her to fall. He then retrieved a large knife from the kitchen and held it close to her face. In the second and more serious incident, in the early hours of 12 March 2024, the offender woke the victim by sitting on top of her, twice grabbed her by the throat (for approximately 10 and 15 seconds respectively), covered her mouth, and threatened further violence while making repeated accusations of infidelity. The victim's young son was asleep nearby. The offender was also subject to an Apprehended Domestic Violence Order at the time of the March offences.
The offender additionally consented to being called up on a breach of a Community Corrections Order (CCO) imposed in September 2023 for taking and driving a conveyance, which he breached by committing the offences now before the court.
Legal Issues
- What aggregate sentence was appropriate across counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, stalking and intimidation, intentional choking, and contravening an ADVO?
- What discount applied to the guilty pleas entered in the District Court (as opposed to the Local Court)?
- Whether special circumstances existed to justify a longer parole period relative to the non-parole period.
- What, if any, action was appropriate on the breach of the expired CCO?
- How the offender's significant background of disadvantage, trauma, institutionalisation, mental health issues, and limited time in the community since adulthood should be weighed in sentencing.
Decision
Scotting DCJ accepted that the offending was serious, involving a pattern of controlling and violent behaviour within a domestic relationship, including choking on two occasions. The offender was on an ADVO, on parole, and under a CCO at the time of the March 2024 offences, all of which the court treated as significant aggravating factors.
The court engaged in careful consideration of the offender's background. The offender grew up in deeply disadvantaged circumstances on an Aboriginal mission in La Perouse, suffered the death of his mother at age 13, experienced repeated sexual abuse and physical violence from childhood, and had only approximately 16 months of liberty in the community since turning 18. His extensive criminal history and limited time outside custody were central to the institutionalisation analysis, supported by expert reports from a psychiatrist and specialists in institutionalisation.
On the question of special circumstances, the Crown submitted that no finding should be made because the offender had no realistic prospects of rehabilitation and a lengthy parole period would set him up to fail. Scotting DCJ rejected that submission. The court found that the offender does have some prospects of rehabilitation, and that the entrenched nature of his institutionalisation, mental health difficulties, and addiction problems means he requires a longer period of supervised parole rather than a shorter one, in order to have any realistic chance of addressing those factors.
The court applied a 10% guilty plea discount for the indictment matters (pleas entered in the District Court) and declined to take any action on the CCO breach, noting that the order had since expired and the offender had complied with it until the commission of the current offences.
Orders Made
- The offender was convicted on all counts.
- An aggregate sentence of 3 years' imprisonment was imposed, with a non-parole period of 1 year and 9 months, backdated to 12 March 2024.
- The non-parole period expires on 11 December 2025; the head sentence expires on 11 March 2027.
- The offender is to be released on parole on 11 December 2025.
- No action was taken on the breach of the Community Corrections Order.
- The court noted indicative sentences for each count: 8 months (assault occasioning ABH), 22 months (stalking/intimidation), 22 months (intentional choking), and 6 months (contravening ADVO).
Key Takeaways
- A finding of special circumstances can be made even where the Crown argues against it, where the evidence supports a conclusion that a longer parole period is necessary for an offender to address deep-seated institutionalisation, mental health issues, and addiction.
- Entrenched disadvantage, childhood trauma, and a history of abuse are relevant to the weight given to general deterrence and to the assessment of prospects of rehabilitation, even in cases of serious domestic violence.
- Under the guilty plea discount scheme in the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999, pleas entered in the District Court attract a 10% discount rather than the 25% available for earlier pleas, a distinction that applied directly to the indictment counts here.
- The presence of multiple concurrent aggravating features, including being on parole, subject to an ADVO, and under a CCO at the time of offending, weighs heavily in the sentencing calculus for domestic violence matters.
- Where a CCO has already expired by the time of sentencing and the offender otherwise complied with its conditions prior to the relevant offending, a sentencing court may take no action on a breach call-up.
Legislation and Cases Referenced
Legislation:
- Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), ss 37(1A), 59(1)
- Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW), ss 13(1), 14(1)
- Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW), ss 3A, 5, 21A, 25D(2)(b), 53A
Cases:
- R v Olbrich (1999) 199 CLR 270
- Ingrey v R [2016] NSWCCA 31