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

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS		
		
v		
		
AMANI DARRIN (a pseudonym) 		

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE DOYLE	
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne	
DATE OF HEARING:	15 April 2021, 10 June 2021, 16 June 2021	
DATE OF SENTENCE:	7 September 2021	
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Darrin (a pseudonym)	
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2021] VCC 1303	

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:						CRIMINAL LAW - SENTENCE
Catchwords:			Guilty plea – Intentionally causing injury - Family violence offending – deportation risk – mild intellectual disability of offender
Legislation Cited:		Crimes Act 1958; Sentencing Act 1991
Cases Cited:			Worboyes v The Queen [2021] VSCA 169
Sentence:			351 days imprisonment combined with a community corrections order for a period of 18 months. Section 6AAA: 2 years and 6 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 20 months.
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APPEARANCES:
	Counsel	Solicitors	
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	G Hevey	Solicitor for the Office of Public Prosecutions	
			
For the Accused	A Waters	Victoria Legal Aid	

HIS HONOUR:
1	Amani Darrin, you have pleaded guilty on Indictment L10902404.3 to one charge of intentionally causing injury for which the maximum penalty is 10 years' imprisonment.
2	The victim in this matter is your husband, Edward Darrin. The offences occurred at an address in Glenroy where you lived together with Mr Darrin.
3	The procedural history of this matter is that you were originally charged with intentionally causing serious injury and recklessly causing serious injury.  You ran a brief contested committal in October 2020 which was focused on the issue of whether the injury in this case constituted a serious injury.  Thereafter, the matter proceeded to this court and was adjourned several times.  Eventually, you decided to apply to have the matter heard as a judge-alone trial.  This application was granted in March of this year.  I would have heard the 
judge-alone trial but before the scheduled commencement date the matter resolved, and you entered your plea to the charge of intentionally causing injury.
4	Initially, you had been on bail, but the bail was revoked in December 2020 because of further offending against Mr Darrin.
5	The circumstances of the offence are set out in the prosecution opening which was tendered on the plea hearing and I will briefly summarise those circumstances.
Circumstances of the offending
6	On 14 April 2020, you and your husband were home together at your unit in Glenroy.  At around 7.10pm you became very angry over an argument you were conducting via text message with Mr Darrin’s nephew.  You asked Mr Darrin to call his nephew.  He did so but then he told you that his nephew had hung up the phone.
7	Mr Darrin’s method of dealing with your anger was to adopt a submissive attitude until you calmed down.  On this occasion he sat down on the couch in the lounge room.  He was trying to explain to you that his nephew had hung up but you were enraged.
8	You picked up a kitchen knife and swung the knife towards Mr Darrin.  He put up his hand and you struck him with the knife to the middle finger of his left hand.  He threatened to call 000.  You raised the knife above your head and swung it downwards towards his face.  You stabbed him above the right eye and this is the basis of the charge of intentionally causing injury.
9	You then grabbed his mobile phone.  He asked for it back so he could call an ambulance.  You walked into the kitchen area and threw the knife into the sink.  You then walked back and hit Mr Darrin over the head with the mobile phone approximately three times.  He threatened to smash the phone.  Mr Darrin grabbed the phone from you and called 000.  You then ran outside and waited for the police to arrive.
10	You were arrested at around 7.20pm by the police who arrived at the address.  You were standing at the front door of your unit when police arrived.  Police could hear you screaming and shouting.  They asked you to leave the premises, but you continued to refuse.  Eventually they were able to enter via an unlocked side door and you were then arrested.  You were taken to Broadmeadows police station.
Injuries
11	Mr Darrin was taken by ambulance to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.  He had sustained a stab wound to the middle finger of his left hand and a stab wound to the right eye area.  Dr Rachel Meagher, who is a forensic physician with the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, assessed the seriousness of Mr Darrin’s injury.  She said that the injuries to Mr Darrin would result in some degree of impairment for approximately two to three months.  The knife penetrated Mr Darrin’s lateral rectus muscle, which is one of the outer muscles around the eye globe.  He suffered double vision for approximately one month after the incident.  Fortunately, the injury to his eye has not left lasting impairment.  One of the potential issues if the matter had proceeded to trial was whether this injury was a serious injury under the Crimes Act definition.  No victim impact statement has been provided in this case, but it is clear from what I have been told that the impact physically on Mr Darrin was significant.
Interview
12	In your record of interview, you denied stabbing Mr Darrin.  You said you lost it when he threatened to call police.  You said you had the knife in your hand to scare him and then you threw it in the kitchen sink.  You said the injury to his hand was an accident because you stumbled.  You denied stabbing him in the eye.  You admitted drinking beer at the time of the incident.  You said your relationship was under financial pressure and that you were stressed.  You said you were sorry he had suffered injuries.
Guilty plea
13	In this matter, you pleaded guilty once the prosecution chose to proceed on the intentionally causing injury charge rather than intentional or recklessly causing serious injury.  This was a negotiated outcome.  In the circumstances, in my view, this must be considered a plea of guilty at the earliest opportunity.  The issue at the committal was whether the injury was a serious injury.
14	Given your denials though of the offending I am not satisfied you have any great remorse for the offence although I accept you are sorry about the injuries you caused.
15	I give you credit for the utilitarian value of your plea which has saved the court the time and resources a trial would have used.  The utilitarian value of your plea is heightened in the current circumstances, where the court faces a very substantial and a growing backlog of trials resulting from the suspension of jury trials during the pandemic.  This increased utilitarian value of a guilty plea was recognised by the Court of Appeal in the recent decision of Worboyes v The Queen [2021] VSCA 169 (‘Worboyes’), where the court said at paragraph 35:
'Given the unhappy state of the courts’ lists, the courts must, in an endeavour to alleviate the strain on the system, encourage those accused who are guilty to so plead.  Such encouragement must come from an actual and palpable amelioration of sentence.'
16	I also accept your guilty plea a willingness to facilitate the course of justice.
17	In accordance with the authority that I have just quoted, Worboyes, you must receive a significant sentencing discount for your guilty plea coming in the middle of the pandemic.
Seriousness
18	This was a serious assault.  The offending in this case is domestic violence offending.  You have relevant prior convictions relating to Mr Darrin and subsequent offences against him.
19	Considerations of general and specific deterrence and denunciation are important sentencing principles for offences of this nature which are prevalent in the community.
20	Mr Waters who appeared for you on the plea submitted that you did not intend to stab Mr Darrin in the eye and that did not intend to cause a serious injury.  Mr Hevey, the prosecutor, submitted that the matter had resolved as a plea to intentional injury because the prosecution accepted the difficulty in proving that the injury caused was substantial and protracted or life endangering as required by the Crimes Act.  He did not concede that you did not intend to cause a serious injury.
21	In assessing the gravity of this incident, I am of the view that the injury caused is towards the upper end of seriousness for an injury charge.  I am not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that you intended to stab Mr Darrin in the eye, but I am satisfied that you intentionally thrust the knife towards his face; an obviously vulnerable area of the body, knowing an injury would result.
22	I accept the submission of Mr Waters that your actions were impulsive and that there was no pre-planning.
23	After these events you were granted bail.  A family violence order was made prohibiting you from having any contact with Mr Darrin.  You breached this order on several occasions and you were dealt with for these further offences in February 2021 and received a sentence of imprisonment of 72 days.  Bail in this matter was revoked because of that offending and you have now been in custody for these matters for a total period of 436 days and in addition, you spent 72 days serving a sentence relating to those further offences.  That is a total period of over 500 days.
Personal circumstances
24	Your personal circumstances are that you are now 34 years old.  You were born and raised in Scotland and came to Australia in 2015 after a two-year online relationship with the victim. The two of you got married when you arrived in Australia, and you lived with him until this incident.
25	You have one child, a son, who lives in Scotland with his father.  You grew up in a dysfunctional home.  Your parents' relationship was volatile, and your father was an alcoholic who was violent to your mother.  You were bullied at school and you were diagnosed with ADHD and were transferred to a special school.
26	Two psychological reports have been tendered on your behalf.
27	You were assessed by psychologist Ms Sandra Cokorilo in April this year.  She conducted psychological testing.  She diagnosed you as suffering from ADHD, a generalised anxiety disorder and an alcohol-use disorder.  She said your history is suggestive of a borderline personality disorder which manifests as a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships and self-image and is marked by impulsivity which began in early childhood.  Your neglect as a child by your parents and bullying at school are described as ‘invalidating early environments implicated in the development of the borderline personality disorder'.
28	She said you displayed very low intelligence, a poor memory and concentration problems inherent in your ADHD profile.  Ms Cokorilo described you as an alcoholic with limited insight into the relationship between alcohol use and your offending.  She said your lack of insight into this offending was a result of your limited intellectual functioning rather than antisocial attitudes.
29	Ms Cokorilo said impulsivity, affective instability and uncontrollable anger are characteristics of borderline personality disorder which result in unstable and intense interpersonal relationships.
30	She said at the time of the offending you were not able to think clearly, make calm and rational choices and appreciate the wrongfulness and consequences of your conduct.  She said absent intoxication you would have likely exerted more control over your behaviour.  The alcohol aggravates your underlying impulsivity inherent in your ADHD and borderline personality disorder, leading to reduced self-inhibition and cognitive and behavioural self-control.  Ms Cokorilo said this contributed to the offending.
31	A further report was obtained from neuropsychologist, Ms Susan Carey, and her report was tendered as an exhibit.  Ms Carey assessed your intellectual ability.  You have a full-scale IQ of 67 which means you have a mild intellectual disability.  She considered your intellectual disability against the background of your various mental health conditions that I earlier described.  As a result of the report from Ms Carey, I sought under s 80 of the Sentencing Act a statement of Intellectual Disability under the Disability Act and I have received that statement.
32	Ms Carey in her report said that you did not demonstrate any impairment in understanding right from wrong.  She said that you did not demonstrate frank disinhibition or problems with impulse control.  However, she noted that although there was no evidence of a permanent neurological related behavioural dysregulation, such dysregulation could result from your psychological conditions, particularly your borderline personality disorder.  She said taking your mild intellectual disability together with your other conditions you are likely to have more difficulty making reason decisions/judgements and that due to your complex neuropsychological and psychological conditions you have more difficulty controlling your emotions and faculties compared to a person without those conditions.  She said those conditions (particularly the borderline personality disorder) predispose you to poor decision-making that is emotionally driven, and you have a compromised ability to consider consequences adequately.  Your lower intellectual ability also contributes to poor reasoning.  She acknowledged these vulnerabilities are exacerbated by alcohol use.
33	She opined that your mild intellectual disability and psychiatric conditions are likely to make a custodial sentence more difficult for you than other people, particularly because of your difficulties with interpersonal interactions placing you at a higher risk of conflict.
34	She agreed with the assessment of Ms Cokorilo that you are a high risk of reoffending, particularly if affected by alcohol.
Verdins principles
35	Based on this material, Mr Waters submitted that your cognitive deficits and mental health issues are realistically connected to the offending in this case and reduce your moral culpability and that considerations of general deterrence and specific deterrence should be sensibly moderated.  He also submitted that the burden of your imprisonment is greater because of the array of mental health issues from which you suffer from.  Mr Hevey focused on the fact that you have an ability to understand right from wrong and argued your alcohol consumption lies at the heart of the offending and submitted therefore that the Verdins principles relating to moral culpability and general and specific deterrence do not apply.
36	In my view, the uncontested evidence in the reports does establish a connection between this impulsive offending plainly related to your inability to control your emotional state.  You simply do not have the psychological armoury that a person without your deficits would bring to situations of stress.  However, I do not discount the contribution of alcohol to your behavioural problems and your inability to control yourself, but your mental health issues and cognitive deficits are significant and are relevant to sentencing principles in this case.  In my opinion your moral culpability is reduced by your mental state, although the voluntary consumption of alcohol and your prior convictions are relevant to this assessment as well.  Your moral culpability is not negligible.  Further it is clear from the report that you do have the capacity to understand the wrongfulness of your actions.
37	I accept that general and specific deterrence should be moderated in your case.  However, specific deterrence does remains important given your history.  In assessing the significance of specific deterrence thought, I do take into account that you have now been in custody for over 500 days as a message to you of the consequences of this type of behaviour.
Justice plan 
38	You have never been on a justice plan before and therefore your Intellectual Disability is relevant to the type of disposition that is suitable. A justice plan to be part of a community correction order has been prepared and the support you will receive pursuant to that plan will augment a community corrections order.
Deportation risk
39	You are not a citizen or even a permanent resident in Australia.  In fact, your visa does not entitle you to any benefits in this country.  That visa precludes you from working as well.  There is a risk you will be deported as a result of this offending.  You want to remain in Australia.  You have been here for five years and you have ties in the community, although they are limited beyond Mr Darrin.  You do, however, make it clear in the various reports that you want to remain and make a life in Australia.  I do suspect you want to try and resume your relationship with your husband.  
40	I accept though that anxiety about your future in this country and the prospect of deportation has increased the burden of your imprisonment so far and would have the same effect on any future period of imprisonment.  If I impose a sentence of 12 months or more the risk of deportation is increased because such a sentence would trigger the automatic visa cancellation provisions of the Migration Act.  You would of course have appeal rights, but the spectre of deportation would then loom large and heighten your anxiety about that prospect.
Prospect of rehabilitation
41	In relation to your prospects of rehabilitation, given the criminal history which involves three previous incidents relating to Mr Darrin which resulted in two earlier community correction orders and the array of problems you face, I am guarded about your prospects of rehabilitation.  However, there are now significant supports for you in the community.  The Flat-Out organisation will assist, and the justice plan will provide additional support to the support Corrections can provide pursuant to the community correction order.  As Mr Waters put it, there is a substantial package of supports to be wrapped around you.  The obvious risk factors for you are the consumption of alcohol and your relationship with Mr Darrin.  There is currently in place an intervention order which prohibits you from having any contact with Mr Darrin.
42	As I have now said a number of times, you have now been in custody for a total period of over 500 days, including 436 days which is referrable to this incident.  That is a significant period of time.  I am required to have regard to totality in assessing the overall period of 500 days although I note that the 72 days you spent in custody pursuant to the further offences, that was for an entirely separate incident.
43	The majority of the time you have been on remand has coincided with the increased level of restriction within the prison system in response to the pandemic and I take into account those restrictions as a matter that has increased the burden of the period you have spent in prison on remand and indeed serving the earlier sentence.
44	The prosecution submitted that having regard to the serious nature of the offences in this case and your prior history, the appropriate sentence is a period of imprisonment with a head sentence and a minimum non-parole period.  Mr Waters submitted on your behalf that given the mitigating factors in this case, in particular the availability of a justice plan and the recognition of your intellectual disability, a prison sentence combined with a community correction order is within the range of available sentences.
45	I would add that your plea of guilty in accordance with the authority of Worboyes is also a significant matter requiring a lowering of the sentence in this case.
46	Ultimately, balancing the serious nature of the offence in this case against the mitigating factors that I have attempted to outline I have decided that a prison sentence combined with a community correction order with a justice plan is the appropriate sentence.  As I said earlier, your intellectual disability has not previously been a feature of the two correction orders you have served; it will be this time with a justice plan condition attached.
47	I indicated on the last occasion on 16 June that if there had been sufficient supports in place at that time, I would have bailed you pending an extended pre-sentence report and the justice plan.  It seems to me, given that indication and taking all matters into account, the prison sentence that I will fix will be equivalent to the period of time that you had spent in custody relating to these matters at that time and that was 351 days.
Sentence
48	I will sentence you to 351 days and I will declare pursuant to s 18 of the Sentencing Act, 351 days as having been served to be deducted from that sentence.
49	That means that you can also be placed on a community corrections order and I intend to do that.  The duration of the order that I intend to impose will be 18 months and I intend to impose the following special conditions;
•	Assessment and treatment including testing for alcohol abuse dependency as directed;
•	Mental health assessment and treatment as directed; 
•	Offending behaviour programs - I think that may now have a different term in the order, I think it might be forensic intervention but that is what it is, Ms Darrin.  You will have to do offending behaviour programs as directed;
•	Supervision for the order; 
•	I will attach a justice plan to this community corrections order; and
•	It is recommended that I have judicial monitoring and so I will.
50	Judicial monitoring means you have to come back and appear before me to so that I can monitor how you are travelling on this community corrections order.  Do you understand?
51	OFFENDER:  (No audible response.)
52	HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Look, every community correction order has core conditions, Ms Darrin.  You know this because you have been on them before.  The core conditions are that you have to report to Community Corrections within 48 hours.  Now it is going to be the city, is it not, Mr Waters?
53	MR WATERS:  Yes, Your Honour.
54	HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  So it is Melbourne Corrections because your accommodation needs to be arranged in the city having regard to all the support that you are receiving from Flat-Out and other organisations including the Women's Housing Organisation.  So you have to report within 48 hours.
55	You cannot commit another offence, Ms Darrin, for which you could be imprisoned during the time the order is in force.  Now, there is an intervention order in place here.  Do you understand that?
56	OFFENDER:  (No audible response.)
57	HIS HONOUR:  Right.  So if you rang Mr Darrin, would you understand that would be a breach of the order?
58	OFFENDER:  Yes.
59	HIS HONOUR:  Yes, you cannot ring him.  That would be contacting him.
60	OFFENDER:  Yeah.
61	HIS HONOUR:  Do you follow?  You cannot have contact with him.  If you do, you have breached the intervention order. That is an offence and you breach this community correction order.  Do you understand?
62	OFFENDER:  Yes.  I will, I'm not going to.  I'm going to block his number.
63	HIS HONOUR:  All right.
64	OFFENDER:  Sorry.
65	HIS HONOUR:  But if you do, you are breaching the intervention order, that is an offence, you breach the community correction order.  Do you understand?
66	OFFENDER:  Yes.
67	HIS HONOUR:  And I will come to what can happen later.  There are various obligations under the sentencing regulations that I will not go into detail but you also - you have to report to and receive visits from Corrections as directed.  I have said that you have got to report to Corrections within two working days.
68	If you change your address, you have to let Corrections know or your job but that is not an issue for you.  You cannot leave Victoria; I do not think that is an issue either but you cannot leave Victoria without getting permission from Corrections?  Do you follow, Ms Darrin?
69	OFFENDER:  (No audible response.)
70	HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  And you have to obey all lawful instructions from Corrections.  Then you have got to perform all of the different special conditions that I outlined before, that is supervision, mental health - we will just go through them again, supervision, assessment and treatment for alcohol, mental health assessment, offending behaviour programs.  So if they want you to do anger management, you have to do it.  Judicial monitoring, that will be - we will pick a day for you to come back before me, you are under supervision and you are on a justice plan as well.  All right?
71	There could not be more conditions on an order.  I am not going to give you community work because you have been in gaol now for all up on this it is 436 days, I have only declared 351 days but you have been in gaol for 436 days which is a substantial period of time.  It is equivalent to a minimum term of roughly 16 months or thereabouts, I think precisely I added it up, but if you breach all of this, if this falls apart, if you breach it, you do not do what you have to do and if you reoffend, so if you go and get drunk and get angry and carry on and assault someone, get in touch with Mr Darrin, that’s a breach.
72	OFFENDER:  M'mm.
73	HIS HONOUR:  Now, if that happens, firstly you are likely to be remanded in custody; secondly, you would have breached the community correction order and if you breach this community correction order, well, I have to resentence you more than likely unless there is something exceptional that has taken place.  You will be in a position where I have to resentence you.
74	Now, if I resentence you, it will be to a period that is greater than a year.  Do you understand?  I mean I really have no - that is clear enough, all right?
75	So you understand all the consequences that that will have.  Your future is really hanging off by a thread on your performance on this community correction order, all right?
76	I am going to have you back in a month.  Ms Noone, could you just pick a date?  We will make it when I get back from Morwell, well, actually, it might have to be while I am in Morwell.  I see I am on leave. Pick a date a month from now and we will see how Ms Darrin is going on the order.
77	ASSOCIATE:  Yes, Your Honour. 
78	HIS HONOUR:  Sure.
79	MR HEVEY:  Would Your Honour excuse me from that date?
80	HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Absolutely, Mr Hevey.  The prosecution do not have to be there.
81	MR HEVEY:  Thank you.
82	ASSOCIATE:  Is 6 October suitable, Your Honour?
83	HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  All right.  You understand?  6 October. That is a date for judicial monitoring.  It is pretty early, but I am going to see how this has all settled.
84	OFFENDER:  M'mm.
85	HIS HONOUR:  All right?  Now, you will probably be able to appear remotely, I do not know what sort of facilities you will have.  You might need some assistance with that.  I will make it at 9.15, all right?  You will have to appear and we will see how you are going then, all right?
86	The only other matter I want to say to you is this and I have explained this earlier; if you breach the order, on a resentencing there is 436 days that would be deducted from any later sentence and I will make a note to that effect on the orders in this case.  All right.
87	I will make the disposal order sought by the prosecution and I will indicate that but for your plea of guilty in this matter, I would have sentenced you to a period of two and a half years with a minimum of 20 months.
88	All right.  Mr Waters, Mr Hevey, does that cover everything?
89	MR HEVEY:  Thank you, Your Honour.
90	MR WATERS:  Yes, Your Honour.
91	HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Thank you, Mr Hevey and Mr Waters, for your assistance in this long running plea. Thank you both.
92	All right.  Ms Darrin, these orders that I made will be sent to you, all right?
93	OFFENDER:  Yeah.
94	HIS HONOUR:  All right.  I hope there are some arrangements in place for today.  Yes.  All right.  I can see that there is so thank you very much and, Ms Chapman, thank you for your assistance as well.
95	MS CHAPMAN:  Thank you, Your Honour.
96	HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  All right.  I will now adjourn till tomorrow morning.
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