R v Sullivan, Anzac [2010] NSWDC 333

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Sullivan, Anzac [2010] NSWDC 333

HEARING DATE(S): 12/11/2010 & 19/11/10

JUDGMENT DATE: 26 November 2010

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Nicholson SC DCJ

DECISION: Convicted - Sentenced -15 months non-parole period - balance of term 9 months.

CATCHWORDS: Criminal Law - Sentencing - Recklessly wound - domestic violence - alcohol and drug related - use of bottle to inflict wound - 2 cm laceration - failed s.11 bail - review of offender's s.11 bail history - 27year old single male - some family support - lengthy custodial record - quasi custody allowance made.

PARTIES: Regina (Prosecution) Anzac Sullivan (Offender)

FILE NUMBER(S): 2009/6929

SOLICITORS: Crown: Mr A Raymundo Defence: Mr S Rajan

JUDGMENT

1. Domestic Violence is not unknown at any level in Australian society. As with other forms of violence it has long been associated with alcohol and drug abuse. Within the various communities and community structures there are pockets where the occurrence of domestic violence is of greater intensity, areas of socio-economic stress constitute one such example, or where alcohol and drug abuse are rife, violence also reigns. 2. Aboriginal communities, particularly Aboriginal communities where there are serious socio-economic factors at play, are hot houses of domestic violence. Common to the past history of Aboriginal and white cultures is an attitude of male dominance over females. But in the twenty-first century women from both cultures have made it known that past mores are no more and in particular the chastisement of or violence towards women is no longer to be tolerated in Australian society regardless of any past cultural affinity for the caveman approach to women. 3. In modern times women, I focus here particularly on Aboriginal women, have made it clear they will no longer tolerate violence. Women who report domestic abuse must be seen as the courageous heroines they are. In the past they did not seek treatment, today more and more are doing so. In the past, they did not seek police assistance. Today, more and more are doing so. In the past, they would not come to court. Today, more and more are doing so. Each of these steps requires great courage because it exposes the dysfunction in their own life. Each of these steps is an important step forward in stamping out domestic violence. Each is a step toward the detection of domestic violence. Each is a step towards making the men accountable for their conduct towards their women. 4. SD is one of those courageous women. She and Anzac Sullivan had been in a - (I take these remarks from my remarks of Wednesday 2 September 2009 in the Broken Hill District Court) - he and SD had been in a de facto relationship for about four years. There was a two year old daughter from that relationship, that figure of two may be wrong then, and I understand that little girl is four now. 5. On 15 January she had been drinking beers with three other people. The four of them managed to consume four cartons of beers. She says that she drunk about twenty-four of them. After 3 o'clock on the morning of the 16th she returned to her home. She noticed the offender sleeping on a mattress on the front porch. He woke up and said something to her. He was also intoxicated. He believed that she responded harshly to him. He walked into the house, picked up a sauce bottle, and pointed it in her direction. It was his case he intended to tap the bottle on her head to indicate that he was not happy being told off by her. It certainly connected with her forehead. He was reckless. She started to bleed. The sauce bottle fell onto the floor and did not break. On seeing the blood he panicked and left home. She was able to go to hospital. She walked there. She was treated by a registered nurse. 6. The nurse noted a 2 centimetre laceration, which she treated with three stitches. Police attended. She pointed to Mr Sullivan as the person responsible. She did not want to make a formal statement about the matter but the next day he was arrested. He was conveyed to Wilcannia Police Station charged and remanded in custody. He was in custody since his arrest on 17 January until 10 September when he left custody to go directly to Orana Haven Rehabilitation Centre. 7. At the September sittings in Broken Hill last year, Sullivan was arraigned upon two charges that on or about 16 January 2009 at Wilcannia in the State of New South Wales he wounded SD with intent to do her grievous bodily harm and in the alternate that on or about 16 January 2009 at Wilcannia he recklessly wounded SD. He pleaded not guilty to the first matter and guilty to the second. That plea was accepted in full satisfaction of the indictment. It was at this point that Anzac Sullivan formally accepted responsibility for his criminal conduct and began the process of being held accountable for it. 8. He had been in custody by the time of his plea for almost eight months. I recorded in remarks I made on 2 September para 5, the first thing that struck me about this offender when I looked at his record was that Anzac Brian Sullivan had spent most of his adult life in custody. This twenty-five year old man, was letting the best years of his life whiz by him on the outside while he was sitting on this occasion in a gaol in Broken Hill. He had been to other gaols in New South Wales - Junee, Bathurst, Cessnock, Parramatta, Ivanhoe and to that I can now add the Metropolitan Remand and has been able to see the surrounding country, I guess, through the windows and bars of those various institutions. But that is not quite the same as being free and seeing those places from the outside. 9. His adult custodial history started in June 2002 with a couple of days here and there. By the end of December 2002, he was serving a six-month sentence. He was released on 3 July 2003, seven days later he was returned to custody where he remained for fifteen months. He was released on 2 October 2004, six weeks later he returned to custody for another three months. There is then a gap of five months and he returned for two. A gap of two months and he returned to custody for ten. Out for a four months breather before two more months in custody. Within eight weeks he was doing another ten months inside. There was another break of five months before he returned to custody for four months. A further four months. By the time he was released from prison on this occasion it was 18 November 2008. Within two months of that release he was returned to custody on the matters that I am dealing with on 17 January 2009. 10. What then is the nature of his offending conduct as an adult that sees him continually returned to custody? Primarily his conduct relates to violence. For example, common assault, contravene domestic violence order, destroy or damage property, assault police and the like. There is also a Children's record that reflects a youth out of control. 11. It is clear from the nature of his offending that almost all of his offending is drug or alcohol or both related. Custody is at best a blunt instrument for converting antisocial behaviour such as violence into behaviour that fits within normal social norms. One can but wish that in the twenty-first century we could harness other methods of addressing the real issues causing violence within domestic relations. Allocation of resources to address causes of antisocial conduct with a view to minimising that conduct is known as "Front End Loading." Regrettably, the law is left to deal with the consequences of antisocial conduct, that is, "Rear End Loading" that is the resources are pushed to deal with the end result of the antisocial conduct that the social programs properly implanted may have avoided. 12. Of course, on any view of the violence of the order exhibited in this case is antisocial conduct. Given the nature of it and that he is before the courts, the law requires that the offender must be held accountable with the blunt methods we have available. I noted on 2 September 2009, "The pity about Anzac Sullivan is that to look at him he appears a very personable, articulate, self possessed young Aboriginal man. He appears to have two sets of skills. One set of skills was his people skills which he displayed in gaol. (At that time I was speaking about Broken Hill Gaol). He has a position of responsibility in the gaol as, I think it is called, the liaison officer for prisoners. In that role with some enthusiastic support I might say from the Corrective Service officer who was here at the time he said he would give himself 10 out of 10 for the work he was doing in liaising on behalf of the prisoners