R v Gavin William McGAW [2007] NSWDC 33

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Gavin William McGAW [2007] NSWDC 33

HEARING DATE(S): 22/02/2007

JUDGMENT DATE: 22 February 2007

EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 22 February 2007

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: See paragraphs [37], [38], [39], [40], [41] & [42]

CATCHWORDS: Criminal law - Sentence - Detaining for purposes of advantage - Assault - Joint enterprise - Aiding and abetting aggravated sexual assault

LEGISLATION CITED: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999

PARTIES: Crown Gavin William McGaw

FILE NUMBER(S): 06/21/1091

COUNSEL: M Barr (Crown) B Hancock (Offender)

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Nikola Velcic & Associates

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Gavin McGaw appears for sentence today after having pleaded guilty to five very serious offences. When sentencing him for two of those, the fourth and fifth on the indictment, he asks that I take into account other matters on two separate Forms 1. I will take them into account as indicating a greater need for deterrence and retribution than would otherwise be the case.

2 The relevant events all occurred in the one episode of criminality. It was a period of disgraceful criminality. It involved the abuse of a young man for nothing more than the malicious, gratuitous and cruel enjoyment of a number of people. The young man was abused, and treated as inhuman, with no thought being given to his welfare by those involved, (with one qualification to which I will make reference later on).

3 On the evening of 2 August 2005 the offender was with a number of other young people, the oldest of whom was twenty and the youngest of whom was fourteen. The offender was eighteen himself and he was with his nineteen year old sister as well.