R v MIDDLEMISS [2010] NSWDC 292

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v MIDDLEMISS [2010] NSWDC 292

HEARING DATE(S): 26 November 2010 EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 26 November 2010

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: The overall effective sentence is a non-parole period of three and a half years with a head sentence of six and a half years.

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - Armed robbery - Armed robbery with wounding - Knowingly take part in the supply of heroin - Supply heroin - Committing offence whilst on bail - Committing offence whilst on s 9 bond - Sustained attack with multiple injuries - Committing offence to ensure imprisonment - Genuine remorse - Special circumstances

PARTIES: The Crown Suzanne Margaret Middlemiss

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2009/042215; DC 2009/236550; DC 2010/104819

SOLICITORS: Director of Public Prosecutions Gregory J Goold Solicitor

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Most cases that come before the criminal courts are sad cases but this case is sadder than most. For reasons that I will speak about later, after a lengthy period of a law abiding lifestyle the offender sunk to a level where she began using drugs once again, committed serious offences, and then ultimately reached the stage where the only way she could see that she could get help was to deliberately commit an offence so that she could go to gaol. That really does indicate the depths to which Ms Middlemiss had sunk.

2 She began using drugs again in 2008. She had been friends for many years with a Maree Collier. Ms Collier was a high level drug dealer. An indication of the scale of her drug dealing can be gleaned from the fact that when she was sentenced by Judge Black for her various drug dealing activities she received a non-parole period of fifteen years.