R v Beattie [2024] NSWDC 583

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Beattie [2024] NSWDC 583 Hearing dates: 21 June 2024 Date of orders: 30 August 2024 Decision date: 30 August 2024 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: D Barrow SC DCJ Decision: See [73] - [75] Catchwords: CRIME - SENTENCE - fail to stop and assist after a vehicle impact causing grievous bodily harm, s 52AB(2) of the Crimes Act 1900 - aggravated dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, s 52A(4) of the Crimes Act 1900­­ Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1990 Category: Sentence Parties: The Crown The offender (Mr Beattie) Representation: The Crown: Mr S Lipent, Counsel

The offender: Ms L Robeau, Solicitor File Number(s): 2022/00219232

JUDGMENT 1. Mr Beattie pleaded guilty in the Local Court to two serious offences committed on 26 July 2022. 2. The first offence was failing to stop and assist after a vehicle impact causing grievous bodily harm, contrary to s 52AB(2) of the Crimes Act 1900. The maximum penalty of this offence is 7 years imprisonment. There is an automatic disqualification period of 3 years and a minimum disqualification of 12 months. 3. The second offence was an offence of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, contrary to s 52A(4) of the Crimes Act 1900. The maximum penalty is 11 years imprisonment. There is also an automatic disqualification of 3 years and a minimum disqualification of 12 months. 4. The offender also asks the Court to take into account a number of related offences on a Form 1. All but two of these offences are fine and demerit point matters with the exception of the offence of drive recklessly or furiously or speed in a manner dangerous (first offence) where there is a maximum penalty of 9 months imprisonment, and the offence of not stopping vehicle when directed to do so, again the maximum penalty in that matter is 12 months imprisonment. 5. With regard to Form 1 matters, additional punishment is not imposed as a separate penalty for the additional offences. The offences are dealt with by increasing the penalty for the principal offence. Any additional punishment for the principal offence may reflect a greater need for personal deterrence and/or greater requirement for retribution with regard to the principal offence, see Attorney General's Application under s 37 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1990 No 1 of 2002 (2002) 56 NSWLR 146. I note the Crown's submission that these matters are only of marginal significance to the question of an appropriate sentence. 6. The offender pleaded guilty in the Local Court and is entitled to a 25% discount for the utilitarian value of his plea. During the sentence hearing, the Court received material on sentence including a Crown bundle that included agreed facts, and the offender's criminal record, custodial record and traffic record. The Court received a sentencing assessment report and two sets of agreed facts in relation to other matters. 7. The first agreed facts were for a set of offences that occurred on the day before this incident involving the theft of two vehicles, including the vehicle that the offender was driving on 26 July 2022. 8. The second set of agreed facts detailed offending that occurred some months earlier on 6 February 2022 and involved the offender driving while his licence was suspended, being in possession of implements to enter a conveyance, having been previously convicted of the same offence, and of altering amount of illicit drug in oral fluid when required to submit to an oral fluid test. 9. The footage of the offender's interview with police was played and the Court has received a victim impact statement. 10. It is clear from the victim impact statement that, unsurprisingly given the nature of these offences, they had a devastating impact on the victim's physical and mental health and have caused long term suffering that has not yet abated. Towards the end of the statement the victim says: "This accident has completely uprooted my entire life and I fear the reality is that I will never be the same person as I was prior to the accident again. I want my voice to be heard of the unfairness of this situation and how I have been subjected to so much pain and trauma as a result of this accident". 1. On the offender's behalf the Court received a report from a psychologist Mr Gaius Gorham dated 3 April 2024, a number of certificates that relate to programs that the offender has carried out in custody: a Remand Addiction course, a certificate regarding literacy, a certificate of completion of Dialectical Behaviour and Resilience program and a certificate of attendance of 3 of 10 Connect Sessions in the John Morony Correctional Centre. There was also a report from Doctor Bala a consultant psychiatrist dated 13 December 2023. That report was prepared not for these proceedings but for civil proceedings that the offender is bringing, as I understand, as a consequence of serious child sexual assault committed upon him when he was a very young boy. There is also a letter of claim that relates to those civil proceedings.