R v Matavesi [2020] NSWDC 539

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Matavesi [2020] NSWDC 539 Hearing dates: 8 July 2020 Decision date: 08 July 2020 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Haesler SC DCJ Decision: Aggregate sentence of five years three months with a non parole period of three years. Catchwords: CRIME - Choke with intent to commit a serious indictable offence occasioning actual bodily harm - aggravated detention with intent - use an offensive weapon with intent to commit an indictable offence – damage property. SENTENCING – Relevant factors on sentencing – victim impact - early guilty plea – offender a victim of domestic violence – background involving trauma -long standing psychological health and drug and alcohol issues - intoxicated - special circumstances Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 Cases Cited: Bugmy v The Queen (2013) 249 CLR 571 DPP v De La Rosa [2010] NSWCCA 155 Munda v Western Australia [2013] HCA 38; (2013) 249 CLR 600 R v Simpson [2001] NSWCCA 534; 53 NSWLR 704. Category: Sentence Parties: Mandy Fatima Matavesi (the offender) Director of Public Prosecutions Representation: Counsel: Mr S Fraser, Public Defender (for the Offender)

Solicitors: Legal Aid NSW (for the Offender) Ms A Kerr, Director of Public Prosecutions File Number(s): 2019/00335074

SENTENCE – EX TEMPORE REVISED 1. Amanda Matavesi is to be sentenced today for four (4) very serious offences which she committed against her friend and neighbour on the evening of 24 October 2019 and the early hours of 25 October 2019. 2. Those offences are: 1. Choke with intent to commit a serious indictable offence occasioning actual bodily harm: s 37(2) Crimes Act 1900; maximum penalty 25 years imprisonment; 2. Aggravated detention with intent, the circumstances of aggravation being to obtain an advantage being money, and occasioning actual bodily harm during the intention: s 86(2)(b) Crimes Act; maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment; 3. Use an offensive weapon with intent to commit an indictable offence, the weapon being a knife: s 33B(1)(a) Crimes Act; maximum penalty 12 years imprisonment; 4. Intentionally damage property: s 195(1)(a) Crimes Act; maximum penalty five years imprisonment. 1. Those maximums are one guide to the exercise of my sentencing discretion. They do not compel any one result, but they do reflect the seriousness with which Parliament on behalf of the community views each of these offences individually. 2. Because Matavesi entered her pleas of guilty in the Local Court I will reduce each of the sentences I will indicate by 25% to reflect the utilitarian value of those pleas of guilty: s 22D Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999. When I come to formulate an aggregate sentence I will take care not to diminish the value of those reductions. The early plea is also a demonstration of practical remorse; I will have more to say about that later. 3. Matavesi was arrested on 25 October 2019. She has been in custody ever since. Although she served a short sentence in 2018, this is her first significant term of full time imprisonment. It is accepted that there must be a further term of imprisonment of some length. Her time in custody to date was also served concurrently with the balance of a sentence which had been directed to be dealt with by intensive correction in the community. By agreeing to the conditions of an Intensive Corrections Order, Matavesi broke a promise that she made to the Court to be of good behaviour; a promise I am sure she made to herself as well. 4. The commission of further particularly serious offences while subject to an Intensive Corrections Order is a matter that has to be taken into account when I formulate this sentence and its commencement date.