MULDOON, Mark Laurence v R [2010] NSWDC 311

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: MULDOON, Mark Laurence v R [2010] NSWDC 311

JUDGMENT DATE: 13 August 2010

JURISDICTION: District Court of New South Wales

JUDGMENT OF: Cogswell SC DCJ

DECISION: I allow the appeal.

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - sentence appeal - damage property - stalk or intimidate - pre-sentence report - alcohol problem - prior criminal history - well respected in the community when sober - whether to suspend sentence

Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 s 9, 12 LEGISLATION CITED: Crimes Act 1900 s 195(1)(a) Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 s 13(1)

PARTIES: Regina Mark Laurence Muldoon

FILE NUMBER(S): 2009/262511

COUNSEL: Mr Holles for the ODPP

SOLICITORS: Ms Pettet for Mr Muldoon

JUDGMENT

1. Mark Muldoon is appealing from two sentences imposed upon him by magistrates. When a person is sentenced by a magistrate they can appeal to a District Court Judge against the sentence. The District Court Judge hears the case again, usually on the papers before the magistrate, and makes up his or her own mind as to the appropriate sentence. In this case Mr Muldoon received two prison sentences from magistrates for two different offences. Each of the prison sentences was suspended.

2. In his appeal his solicitor, Ms Pettet, is asking that each of the suspended prison sentences becomes a community service order.

3. Mr Holles, who appears as the Crown Prosecutor in both appeals, argues that at least one of the sentences needs to remain as a suspended sentence because of a need for supervision.

4. Briefly the first offence occurred on 19 December 2008 at Portland. Mr Muldoon was drunk and went into a hotel to ask for some money when he wanted to buy some alcohol. The bottle shop proprietor did not provide him with alcohol so he asked another patron who happened to be passing through the bottle shop. That man did not lend him money. As it happened, the man who was passing through who refused him money owned a shop nearby. Mr Muldoon then went up to the shop sometime later and kicked in the window of the shop.