IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA	 Revised
(Not) Restricted
 Suitable for Publication	
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 21-00442

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS		
		
v		
		
CONNOR BEECHER		

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE M.P. BOURKE	
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne	
DATE OF HEARING:	27 July 2021	
DATE OF SENTENCE:	10 August 2021	
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Beecher	
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2021] VCC 1118	

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES:
	Counsel	Solicitors	
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms A. Patterson		
			
For the Accused	Mr L. Dogger		

HIS HONOUR:
1	Connor Beecher, you are to be sentenced for three charges of criminal damage, one charge of attempted aggravated burglary, and one charge of threatening to cause serious injury.  The applicable maximum sentences are 10 years' imprisonment for criminal damage, 20 years' imprisonment for attempted aggravated burglary, and five years' imprisonment for threatening serious injury.  
2	You pleaded guilty before me on 27 July 2021.  When arrested by police on the night of offending, 7 August 2020, you were not fit for interview because of intoxication.  In police interview the following day, you exercised your right to silence.  The committal went by hand-up brief and you entered a plea of guilty on 3 March 2021.  The matter was then listed for plea hearing in this court.  
3	You receive the benefit of your plea of guilty and that level of cooperation.  Your plea was at an early stage.  It has accepted responsibility, expresses remorse, and has facilitated the interest of justice.  As detailed in your counsel's written submission, that utilitarian benefit is enhanced in the situation of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its impact upon the criminal justice system.  
4	At your plea hearing also on 27 July, Ms Patterson for the Crown tendered an amended summary of prosecution opening for plea hearing, and the victim impact statements of Russell Bedson, Justin Porter, and Tabitha Duffy-Bedson.  Mr Miller, for you, tendered the report of treating psychologist, Charles Huson, dated 11 July 2021; certificates related to rehabilitation programs in remand custody; a number of reports, certificates and other materials related to your participation in the Odyssey House residential program at the Hope Centre in Lucknow, near Bairnsdale; letters by drug and alcohol counsellor, Arthur Williams, dated 15 July 2021 and a behavioural change counsellor, Joshua Kerr, dated 21 July 2021; letters of work and character reference; and your own letter to the court.  
5	Both counsel provided written submissions on sentence.  
6	I have also received the community corrections assessment report of Christopher Groh, dated 28 July 2021.  The circumstances of your offending are comprehensively stated in the tendered prosecution opening, which is Exhibit A.  My own summary may therefore be shorter.  It is also informed by matters put on your behalf, not challenged by the Crown. 
7	You committed these offences aged 22.  It seems that in the three to five years previous, your life had been badly affected by alcohol and then drug abuse.  For example, you had lost your apprenticeship three and a half years into that.  
8	At about 9 pm on 7 August 2020, you were drunk and irrationally angry in a residential area of Bairnsdale, not far from your stepmother's residence.  You went to two homes.  At the Moore home, in Henderson Street, you yelled, abused and damaged the front door and window.  Inside, the residents, including an eight-year-old girl, were badly frightened and rang the police.  
9	You moved into a neighbouring address in Cloppers Street.  Again, you yelled and abused at the front door.  Russell Bedson and his daughter, Tabitha, went to the door.  Her partner, Justin Porter, was also inside.  You continued to abuse and threaten to fight Mr Bedson, to 'smash is face in'.  Repeatedly punching the door, you tried to enter, prevented by Russell Bedson holding it closed.  Again, the police were called.  
10	You left and moved towards your stepmother's home.  Russell Bedson followed, recognised you as her son and said so.  It seems further enraged, you sent back and again tried to force entry.  You punched through two glass panels, causing glass fragments to strike Tabitha Duffy-Bedson in the face and hand.  Your victims were screaming in fear.  You persisted for a time, gave up and left.  You snapped off the side mirror of a motor vehicle there.  You threw a rock from the garden, smashing two passenger side windows of Justin Porter's vehicle.  
11	Police arrived, observed an amount of blood, searched and located you under a bed in your mother's home.  You were covered with blood, with multiple cuts and abrasions to your hands and arms.  After arrest, you spoke to your stepmother, saying continually, 'Please tell Jarrod I did this for him.  Please make sure you tell Jarrod I did it for him'.  I was explained a no rational reason for this.  You did not  know your victims.  There is no evidence of grievance.  Jarrod is your older brother.  
12	The tendered victim impact statements state the fear you caused people.  There is loss of a sense of security, feelings of paranoia and hypervigilance.  Sleep, social and family life and work are affected.  Russell Bedson describes his condition of depression as being made worse; similarly, a pre-existing back and chronic pain problem.  He has a heart condition causing him added anxiety. Justin Porter, who read his statement to the court, describes fear for himself, family, and his partner.  Work is affected.  For example, with loss of shifts and income there are other financial difficulties which have resulted.  He has not been able to have his car fixed.  Tabitha Duffy-Bedson also describes physical injuries arising out of the fragments of glass striking her.  You are not before me to be sentenced for an offence of specifically causing such injury.  
13	I have not been complete.  There has been considerable victim impact which must be taken into account in my sentence of you.  This should include the impact upon the victims in the first household you went to.  Mr Miller's written submissions include that you have read these victim impact statements and seem to have done so before the plea hearing.  
14	You are now aged 23 and live with your sister and her family in Wy Yung, also near Bairnsdale.  I have read her tendered letter.  
15	Mr Miller describes your childhood as without significant trauma and complaint by you.  You have an older sister and older stepbrother.  I was told that your mother and father separated when you were 11.  You left school in Bairnsdale at or after Year 11 and began an apprenticeship in plumbing.  It seems that at about this time your father died suddenly from liver cancer.  You were 16 when he died.  This had a strong effect on you.  All three of the children were close to him.  You started drinking alcohol at about this time and drank increasingly over the next few years.  You also moved to abuse of the drug methylamphetamine.  You became so unreliable that, as I have said, you lost your apprenticeship after three and a half years.  
16	You have a partner of seven years and child, a son aged 3.  That relationship was also damaged by your abuse of alcohol and drugs.  She left you, taking the child.  You are now attempting to rebuild the relationship.  
17	Your criminal record reflects this decline.  Between August 2017, when you were 19, and July 2020 there are a number of court appearances.  Breach of family violence intervention orders feature prominently.  There are also offences of threatening to kill, assault, causing injury and criminal damage.  I bear in mind duplication of some matters, for example returning to court for breach of a community corrections order.  In July 2020, you were imprisoned for two months for contravention of family violence intervention orders.  Because of pre-sentence detention declared, you would have been released from court.  However, you seem to have done little about your drinking, drug abuse, and violence associated with these.  This offending occurred about a month later.  
18	It appears to be different this time  and what has happened since the offending is important.  You were remanded upon arrest and charge on 8 August 2020.  After serving 97 days  you were bailed, primarily on the condition that you reside at and participate in the Odyssey House drug and alcohol program at the Hope Centre near Bairnsdale.  As Mr Miller points out, you had proactively sought out that residential rehabilitation whilst in remand custody.  You spent about six months at the Hope Centre.  The evidence persuades me that it was a stringent restrictive regime and that you complied well with that and its rehabilitation.  I find that the principles of Akoka v The Queen [2017] VSCA 214 apply.  Further, it is strong evidence of a desire to rehabilitate and real movement toward that.  
19	You transitioned out of the Hope program in mid-May of this year.  Under varied conditions of bail, you have lived with your sister.  Her letter speaks of your behaviour and engagement with her family.  You have obtained work as a concretor and landscaper.  The letter of your employer speaks highly of your work commitment, performance and positive changes he sees in you.  Since leaving the Hope Centre you have continued drug and alcohol counselling and have attended a men's behavioural program.  You see your former partner and son regularly.  It is stated daily.  You have also commenced treatment in early June with clinical psychologist Charles Huson.  His report states that you see him weekly.  He diagnoses anxiety disorder, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and adult attention deficit disorder.  
20	This was serious offending, which caused significant damage, some physical injury, and very considerable fear.  It happened at your victims' homes.  That you were drunk is no excuse or mitigation.  The circumstances make relevant sentencing considerations of moral culpability, deterrence, particularly here general deterrence, the need to condemn what you did and proportionately punish it.  
21	However, in your case, there are also important moderating factors which should go to reduce your sentence and should impact upon the way it is served.  They include the following.
1)	Your plea of guilty  as earlier explained.  I am persuaded that you are remorseful, not just by what you have said in your letter to the court, but what you have sought to do since the offending.
2)	At 23, you are still young and rehabilitation is important.  Whilst not unguarded, I see real prospects for that, again bearing in mind the steps you have taken and stability achieved since offending.  You have good work capacity and family support.
3)	As I have said, the principles stated in Akoka v The Queen have application to your period of residential rehabilitation at the Odyssey House Hope Centre.  You are entitled to credit in sentencing arising out of the restrictive punitive nature of that, as well as its impact upon your rehabilitation. 
      4)  Also, I see return to prison after a period of release and rehabilitation as a particular hardship which should be taken into account.  Further, that return would be to custody in the circumstances affecting prisoners because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  
I do not see such return to be necessary to meet the relevant sentencing purposes here.  My sentence shall be imprisonment of 97 days, which you have already served, and the imposing of a community corrections order.  It should be of a duration and contain punitive as well as therapeutic conditions to meet those sentencing purposes.  
You are found suitable for a community corrections order.  I sentence you as follows.  
22	On all charges, I impose an aggregate sentence of 97 days.  I declare that period of pre-sentence detention.  I also convict and impose a community corrections order of two years' duration.  The usual terms apply.  The additional conditions are that you perform 300 hours of unpaid community work over that time, that there be supervision, that there be a condition for assessment and treatment for alcohol abuse, and a condition for assessment and treatment for drug abuse.  
23	Fifty hours of the program or rehabilitative work I have just stated can be set off against the 300 hours of community work.  
24	Had you not pleaded guilty, I would have imposed upon you a sentence of 12 months' imprisonment, to be followed by a community corrections order.  
25	Now, Ms Patterson, are there other orders?  I note in your outline of submissions, reference to applications for compensation; are they still relevant?
26	MS PATTERSON:  They are still sought, Your Honour.
27	HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  And has there been filed, those orders?
28	MS PATTERSON:  There were, it was quite some ago though, Your Honour, so if they are not before Your Honour, I can ask they be sent through.
29	HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Well, I will identify them for you and then ask whether or not they are consented to or not.  There was an application in the sum of $1188 payable to Josephine Moore, that would be in respect of the damage to the front of that house.  There was an application for compensation in the sum of $2000 payable to Justin Porter, that would be in respect of the damage to his motor vehicle.  There is an application made for compensation in the sum of $868.05 payable to East Coast Housing.  I am presuming that that entity is the landlord for the Bedson tenanted home.  Am I right about all of that?
30	MS PATTERSON:  Yes, that is my understanding, Your Honour.
31	HIS HONOUR:  Mr Dogger, am I to presume there is no opposition to these compensation orders being made?
32	MR DOGGER:  There is no opposition, Your Honour, no.
33	HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Well, I will make those orders, and that means I will sign them when they are provided to me.  
34	MS PATTERSON:  As the court pleases.
35	HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Now, Mr Beecher, where are you?  you are the home of your sister, are you?
36	OFFENDER:  No, Your Honour, I am my (indistinct) solicitor's office.  
37	HIS HONOUR:  I see.  All right.  I need to put formally to you, the terms of this community corrections order, which will start today.  So, I will just wait for that to be printed out.
38	OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.
39	HIS HONOUR:  All right, Mr Beecher.  As I have said, you are going to be placed on what is called a community corrections order.  It will last for two years, and therefore will run until 9 August 2023.  You must go to the Bairnsdale Community Correction Services office at Macleod Street within two days of today.  
40	The usual terms, other than that, are that you do not commit another offence for which you could be imprisoned over the time.  That you comply with a regulation that you do not attend any program or appointment affected by alcohol or drugs, or in possession of illegal drugs.  You must report to and receive visits from Community Corrections.  
41	You must report to - well, I have told you about that, so I will not repeat it.  You must let Community Corrections knows within two days of a change of address or job.  You must not leave Victoria without first getting permission to do so.  And you must obey all lawful directions of Community Corrections.  
42	Now, they are the usual or standard terms.  The additional conditions are that you perform 300 hours of unpaid work over that two years, 50 hours of the treatment and rehabilitation program conditions, which I will come to in a minute, can be set off against that.  You must be under supervision of a Community Corrections officer for the period.  
43	You must undergo assessment and treatment, including testing for drug abuse or dependency as directed.  You must undergo assessment and treatment, including testing for alcohol abuse or dependency, as you are directed.  Now, do you understand that?
44	OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour?
45	HIS HONOUR:  And do you agree to it?
46	OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.
47	HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Well, now, I will sign it and it will be sent - where will it be sent, Ms Merrington?  Well, you can wait in court and we will get the email address from the solicitor's office, and it could be sent to you then for your signature.  And the first thing you have got to do is to go to the Bairnsdale office at 18A Macleod Street, Bairnsdale.  
48	OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.  
49	HIS HONOUR:  You strike me as somebody who really should not go near a drink because it ends up badly for you, and I think one of the really important things you need to think about is your child.
50	OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.
51	HIS HONOUR:  If you return to the way you were, I cannot see any other fate but prison.
52	OFFENDER:  Yep.
53	HIS HONOUR:  And you might want to reflect on how it would be for him, being taken to a place like that to visit his father.
54	OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.
55	HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Well, all of that having been said, we will adjourn now.  
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