R v MADDEN [2010] NSWDC 337

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v MADDEN [2010] NSWDC 337

HEARING DATE(S): 5 November 2010 EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 5 November 2010

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: Sentenced to imprisonment consisting of a non parole period of two and a half years and a head sentence of four and a half years. The offender is referred to the Drug Court for determination as to his suitability for a compulsory drug treatment order.

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - Aggravated break, enter and commit serious indictable offence - In company - Larceny

CASES CITED: Lowe v R [1984] HCA 46; (1984) 154 CLR 606

PARTIES: The Crown Trent Madden

FILE NUMBER(S): 2009/267599

SOLICITORS: Director of Public Prosecutions Aboriginal Legal Services

JUDGMENT

1 HIS HONOUR: Trent Madden appears for sentence today after having pleaded guilty at an early stage to an offence of aggravated break and enter and commit a serious indictable offence in company. The offence was committed on 16 March 2008 but Mr Madden only appears for sentence today, 5 November 2010, that delay primarily being due to the length of time between when the Division of Analytical Laboratories received relevant material and when they notified the police of a match between the blood stain they tested and the DNA of this offender. In the meantime the offender had served a sentence for an unrelated matter and had been released only shortly before being arrested for this matter.

2 I have begun these remarks by referring to his circumstances because of the injustice that can be caused to an offender when inadequate resources are provided to the Division of Analytical Laboratories, such that offenders stand to be sentenced for offences they have committed some considerable time before. In some cases, although this is not one of them, offenders are completely different people, having rehabilitated themselves by the time they stand for sentence for an old offence. I have borne in mind to a significant extent that Mr Madden stands for sentence today for an offence committed a fair while ago.