R v Graeme Frederick CONNELLY [2007] NSWDC 236

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Graeme Frederick CONNELLY [2007] NSWDC 236

HEARING DATE(S): 22 October 2007

JUDGMENT DATE: 22 October 2007

EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 22 October 2007

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: The offender is sentenced to imprisonment with non-parole period of two years and a total sentence of four years. .

CATCHWORDS: Criminal Law - Sentence - Aggravated Break and enter - Commit serious indictable offence - Assault occasioning actual bodily harm - Intoxication

LEGISLATION CITED: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999

PARTIES: The Crown Graeme Fredercik Connelly

FILE NUMBER(S): 07/31/0216

COUNSEL: J. Booth - Offender

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Aborignial Legal Service

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Graeme Frederick Connelly appears for sentence today after having pleaded guilty to a serious offence. It is an offence of breaking and entering premises and then committing a serious indictable offence. The serious indictable offence committed was an offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The offence is aggravated by the circumstance that at the time Mr Connelly broke into the premises he knew that the place was occupied. These events all occurred on 22 March 2007. On that day the offender was drinking heavily. He was also consuming drugs. In the evening he committed not only the offence for which he is to be specifically sentenced, but also other offences on a Form One which he asks me to take into account.

2 The first offence is one of the matters on the Form One. That occurred at about 9.10pm on 22 March 2007. Two gentlemen, a Peter Cullen and Mitchell Self, were at home. Mr Self is the offender's brother-in-law. Mr Cullen is cared for by Mr Self. It appears that Mr Cullen is an epileptic. They are the only details I know about why it is that Mr Cullen has a carer. For reasons that are not all apparent, but which are clearly related to the offender's intoxication, he and others forced open the front door of the premises where Mr Cullen and Mr Self lived. The offender was armed with a black metal pole and he had three other men with him. He handed the pole to one of those men and walked towards Mr Cullen. He swung a punch at Mr Cullen, but that did not connect. He said, "Where's the money? Where's the pot? Where's the alcohol?" and then said, "If you call the police, I'll kill yous. We'll be back later for the rest." The four of them then left leaving behind, no doubt, a frightened Mr Cullen and Mr Self. They, quite sensibly, called the police. That offence that I have just described is the first of the matters on the Form One.