R v BOZINOVSKI [2009] NSWDC 200

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v BOZINOVSKI [2009] NSWDC 200 This decision has been amended. Please see the end of the judgment for a list of the amendments.

HEARING DATE(S): 4 June 2009

JUDGMENT DATE: 4 June 2009

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: The offender is sentenced to imprisonment for two years and six months. He is to be released after serving one and a half years upon entering into a reconnaissance himself in the sum of $100 with the following conditions. He is to be of good behaviour for the remainder of his sentence, he is to accept the supervision of the Probation and Parole Service.

CATCHWORDS: Criminal Law - Sentence - Using a carriage service to groom a person under the age of 16 years - Predatory behaviour

LEGISLATION CITED: Commonwealth Criminal Code

CASES CITED: R v Gadgar [2000] VSCA 268

PARTIES: The Crown Toni Bozinovski

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2008/11/1313

COUNSEL: P McGuire - Crown P Rosser QC - Offender

SOLICITORS: Commonwealth DPP Hansons Solicitors

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: The offender is to be sentenced for an offence against s 474.27(1) of the Commonwealth Criminal Code. That is an offence of using a carriage service to groom a person under the age of 16 years. The circumstances of this offence are very serious. The offender was made clearly aware at the age of the complainant and indeed he received a photograph of her. In the course of his use of the carriage service he made reference to having sexual intercourse with her, those references clearly suggesting that he was aware that she was a virgin.

2 The offender was thirty years of age, the complainant only thirteen. The offender had a relationship with another young girl, I will not name her in these remarks. Through her, the offender made contact with the complainant in this matter. She believed that the offender was seventeen years of age or so, was because of the way he spoke to her through text messages. His MySpace profile suggested that he was twenty-two and as I have already indicated, in fact he was thirty. The offence took place between 11 January 2008 and 25 January 2008 and mainly consisted of the offender text-messaging the complainant. A very large number of text messages was sent and it culminated in the offender driving the considerable distance from Manly Vale to Gwandalan, where the complainant lived, so that he could meet her. Fortunately, the person who he met was not the complainant but the complainant's aunt, armed with a baseball bat. She had obtained possession of the complainant's mobile telephone and whilst pretending to be her niece, had communicated with the offender.