Young (a pseudonym) v R [2022] NSWCCA 111

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Young (a pseudonym) v R [2022] NSWCCA 111 Hearing dates: 27 May 2022 Date of orders: 3 June 2022 Decision date: 03 June 2022 Before: Bell CJ at [1]; Button J at [2]; N Adams J at [3]. Decision: (1) Leave to appeal is granted. (2) The appeal is allowed. (3) The aggregate sentence imposed by Judge Haesler SC on 20 July 2021 is quashed; in lieu thereof, the respondent is sentenced to an aggregate sentence of 2 years' of imprisonment to commence on 4 February 2021 and expire on 3 February 2023 with an aggregate non-parole period of 16 months to expire on 3 June 2022. Catchwords: SENTENCING – appeal against sentence – manifest excess – difficult sentencing exercise – sexual offences committed on child when offender was also a child – Bugmy background – delay of 16-17 years between offending and charges laid – offender lost opportunity both to be dealt with as a child and to be dealt with prior to amendments to sentencing regime in 2018 – threshold in s 5 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 – objective seriousness of offending required custodial sentence – sentence did not reflect delay, age of applicant at time of offences and overwhelming subjective case – leave to appeal granted – appeal allowed Legislation Cited: Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 (NSW), s 4, 16, 17 Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), ss 66C(1), 66D Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW), s 25AA(1), 32, 44(2B), 53A, 67(1)(b) Criminal Appeal Act 1912 (NSW), s 5(1)(c) Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Amendment (Sentencing Options) Act 2017 (NSW) Cases Cited: AB v R [2022] NSWCCA 3 BM v R [2019] NSWCCA 223 Brierley v R [2022] NSWCCA 26 Bugmy v The Queen (2103) 249 CLR 571; [2013] HCA 37 Conte v R [2018] NSWCCA 209 Griffin v R [2018] NSWCCA 259 JA v R [2021] NSWCC 10 Kliendienst v R [2020] NSWCCA 98 KT v R [2008] NSWCCA MPB v R [2013] NSWCCA 213; 234 A Crim R 576 Obeid v R (2017) 96 NSWLR 155; [2017] NSWCCA 221 Paul Campbell v R [2018] NSWCCA 87 R v AA [2017] NSWCCA 84 R v Nelson [2016] NSWCCA 130 R v Young (a pseudonym) [2021] NSWDC 702 SW v R [2019] NSWCCA 194 Zreika v R [2012] NSWCCA 44 Texts Cited: New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Second Reading Speech, Criminal Legislation Amendment (Child Sexual Abuse) Bill 2018 (NSW) (Hansard), 6 June 2018 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Steven Young (a pseudonym) (Applicant) Regina (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: Mr K Averre (Applicant) Ms E Nicholson (Respondent)