R v Khudadadi [2020] NSWDC 563

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Khudadadi [2020] NSWDC 563 Hearing dates: 12 - 15 November 2019 Date of orders: 11 June 2020 Decision date: 11 June 2020 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Buscombe DCJ Decision: Impose sentence of 3 years imprisonment and a non-parole period of 2 years imprisonment Catchwords: CRIME — Violent offences — Wound with intent to cause grievous bodily harm SENTENCING — Aggravating factors — Home of victim or any other person Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), s 33 Crimes (Sentencing and Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) s 21A, s 3A Category: Sentence Parties: Director of Public Prosecutions (Crown) Mr Amir Khudadadi (Offender) Representation: Counsel: Mr A Hallas (Offender)

Solicitors: Mr A Kemp (Crown) File Number(s): 2017/338529 Publication restriction: Nil

SENTENCE

Introduction 1. HIS HONOUR: The offender was found guilty after trial by a jury of an offence that on 8 November 2017 at South Wentworthville, he wounded Saed Hussani with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to him. That is an offence under s 33 subs(1)(a) of the Crimes Act and has a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment with an applicable standard non-parole period of seven years.

The Facts 1. These are sentence proceedings after trial and I am required to find the facts consistent with the jury's verdict. To the extent that I find a fact adverse to the offender, then I must be satisfied of that fact beyond reasonable doubt. 2. The jury's verdict of guilty is consistent with the jury's acceptance of the account given by the victim of the events that occurred between the victim and the offender on 8 November 2017. The offender, Mr Moktar the victim and Mr Akbari and a fourth man were sharing accommodation in a house in Berkeley Street, South Wentworthville. 3. On 8 November 2017, the victim had travelled to and from work with Mr Akbari. At about 6pm, they returned home. The victim made his way inside the house while Mr Akbari remained in the car and called his family on the phone. When the victim went into the kitchen area, he encountered the accused. Soon afterwards, an argument developed between them which developed into a fight. During the fight, punches were thrown by both men and the victim's glasses were broken. 4. As a result of the fight, various items in the kitchen area were also broken. The fight did not last long, the victim retreated to his bedroom at the back of the house; the victim closed the bedroom door behind him and sat on a corner of the bed. About two minutes later, the victim heard the offender yell "I'm going to kill you". At the same time, the offender burst into the bedroom with a large black handled kitchen knife. The offender then attacked the victim by attempting to stab him in the chest with the knife. The victim was able to grab the blade of the knife with his hand and stopped it from entering his chest. The knife made a small laceration to the victim's chest. 5. A struggle ensued in the bedroom during which the offender again said he was going to kill the victim. At some stage during the struggle, while the victim was holding the blade of the knife, the victim's hand was cut. The victim then ran from the bedroom door and as he did, the offender hit him on the head with the butt of the knife. The victim ran out the back door of the house leaving a trail of blood behind. 6. Once outside, the victim called triple 0 and immediately complained that the offender had attacked him and that his hand had been cut. That call was made at 6.17pm. The offender then hid the black handled knife along with another knife in the back of a cupboard in the kitchen. 7. At 6.21pm, the offender called triple 0, told the operator that he had been in a fight with the victim. It is apparent that the offender had limited English at that time but he does tell the operator that there was no weapon or knife involved and nobody was hurt. 8. At 6.21pm, the police arrived on the scene and observed the victim and Mr Akbari at the front of the house. They also observed an injury to the victim's hand and the victim made a complaint to one of the officers about being attacked by the offender. The offender came out of the house and was arrested by the police. He assisted police in locating the black handled knife. Shortly afterwards, ambulance officers took the victim to Westmead Hospital. He was reviewed there by the plastic surgery team and underwent operative exploration and repair of a right hand wound on 10 November 2017. 9. During the operation, the doctors noted a laceration extending over the palm of one of the victim's hands in a semi-circular pattern extending through the two layers of the skin and superficially into the underlying muscles of the palm. The nerves and tendons were not damaged. The wound was washed with saline solution. The muscles did not require repair and the skin was closed with stitches and a dressing applied. The victim was discharged from hospital on 13 November 2017. 10. The offender in his record of interview with the police on 8 November 2017 gave an account of the incident in which the offence occurred. That account involved the victim taking a knife to his room along with the offender and attacking the offender in the room with the knife. The offender's account was essentially, that the wound to the victim occurred while the offender was disarming the victim. Clearly, by the jury's guilty verdict, they were satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the offender's version should be rejected.