Courtney HOWELL v R [2008] NSWDC 282

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: Courtney HOWELL v R [2008] NSWDC 282 This decision has been amended. Please see the end of the judgment for a list of the amendments.

HEARING DATE(S): 27 March 2008 EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 27 March 2008

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: Appeal is dismissed and the orders of the magistrate are confirmed.

CATCHWORDS: Criminal law - Severity appeal - Assault occasioning actual bodily harm - Hinder investigation by police - Assault - Significant breach of the peace

PARTIES: Courtney Howell The Crown

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Nyman Gibson Stewart

JUDGMENT

1 HIS HONOUR: Courtney Howell appeals against three sentences imposed by a magistrate arising out of the events of 22 September 2006. The first is an offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm for which the appellant was sentenced to imprisonment to be served by way of a periodic detention for sixteen months with a non-parole period of ten months. The next offence is one of hinder investigation by police; the appellant also received periodic detention for that matter, this time of nine months with a non-parole period of six months, it being wholly subsumed in the sentence of the assault occasioning actual bodily harm. And finally, there is an offence of assault for which the magistrate imposed a sentence of one month periodic detention, it also being wholly subsumed by the other two matters.

2 On 22 September 2006 the appellant and some friends of his went to a hotel. Also present at the hotel were a group of other people. Both groups seem to have been drinking. An altercation arose. Matters were taken outside, in the course of which the appellant struck a man by the name of John Coonahan to his face. He also struck Mr Foley. The circumstances of the assault on Mr Coonahan, it being assault occasioning actual bodily harm, required close examination. It is common ground that after the appellant struck Mr Coonahan, he was severely assaulted by a friend of the appellant, Matthew Lowe. It is common ground also that in the course of that assault Mr Lowe stomped on Mr Coonahan's head, rendering him unconscious and leading to a situation where he required brain surgery and has been left with permanent brain damage.