Woods v R [2024] NSWCCA 186

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Woods v R [2024] NSWCCA 186 Hearing dates: 14 June 2024 Date of orders: 18 October 2024 Decision date: 18 October 2024 Before: Kirk JA at [1]; Campbell J at [2]; N Adams J at [59] Decision: (1) Under rule 3.5(5) Supreme Court (Criminal Appeal) Rules 2021 grant the applicant leave to make his application for leave to appeal from the sentence passed on him in the District Court. (2) Grant leave to appeal. (3) Appeal dismissed. Catchwords: CRIME – appeals – appeal against sentence – application for leave to appeal – self-representation not a privilege but a disadvantage – leave not ordinarily granted merely because a party is self-represented – applicant unaware no application was made while he had legal representation – leave to appeal granted CRIME – appeals – appeal against sentence – State and Commonwealth offences – accumulation, concurrency and totality – whether sentencing judge erred in wholly accumulating the Commonwealth aggregate sentence on the State sentence – no obligation to import a degree of concurrency – different criminality involved – whether sentencing judge erred by not expressly referring to R v Fernando and Bugmy v The Queen – sentencing judge had regard to the applicant's subjective case and found reduced culpability – sentence passed necessarily stern to reflect the Commonwealth Parliament's intention – appeal dismissed Legislation Cited: Child Protection (Offenders Registration) Act 2000 (NSW), ss 3A, 17 Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW), s 25D Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), ss 16A, 16AAB, 16AAC, 19, 19AJ, 19AV Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Crimes Against Children and Community Protection Measures) Act 2020 (Cth) Criminal Code (Cth), ss 474.22, 474.22A Supreme Court (Criminal Appeal) Rules 2021 (NSW), r 3.5 Cases Cited: Bisiker v R [2022] NSWCCA 110 Bugmy v The Queen (2013) 249 CLR 571; [2013] HCA 37 Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) v Beattie [2017] NSWCCA 301; 270 A Crim R 556 Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) v De La Rosa (2010) 79 NSWLR 1; [2010] NSWCCA 194 Director of Public Prosecutions (Vic) v Swingler [2017] VSCA 305; 269 A Crim R 526 Gallo v Dawson [1990] HCA 30; 64 ALJR 458 Housing Commission (NSW) v Tatmar Pastoral Co Pty Ltd [1983] 3 NSWLR 378 Pearce v The Queen (1998) 194 CLR 610; [1998] HCA 57 R v Fernando [2002] NSWCCA 28 Xiao v The Queen (2018) 96 NSWLR 1; [2018] NSWCCA 4 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Toby James Woods (Applicant) Crown (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: Applicant (Self-represented) A Chhabra with A Schatz (Respondent)