R v Joseph SAHYOUN [2008] NSWDC 351

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Joseph SAHYOUN [2008] NSWDC 351

JUDGMENT DATE: 19 December 2008

JURISDICTION: District Court of New South Wales

JUDGMENT OF: Cogswell SC DCJ

DECISION: Sentenced to two years imprisonment suspended on the condition of entering into a good behaviour bond.

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - sexual intercourse with child between 10 and 16 - victim impact statement - remorse

LEGISLATION CITED: Crimes Act 1900 s66C(1) Confiscation of Proceeds of Crime Act 1989

PARTIES: Regina Joseph Sahyoun

FILE NUMBER(S): 2008/14220

COUNSEL: Ms Nash (offender)

SOLICITORS: Ms Roberts (NSW DPP)

JUDGMENT

1. This is a case about a young man who has quite uncharacteristically committed a very serious crime. Two of the important features in this sentencing are the seriousness of the crime and the significance of the young man's contrition. The young man is Joseph Sahyoun.

2. When he was twenty years of age and at university and working in his father's tobacconist shop, he attracted the attention of a fourteen year old school girl. When I say that, I mean that they became mutually attracted to each other. She used to call in to see him at his work. They used to embrace and kiss one another.

3. On 11 April 2007, she came to his work and he offered to drive her home. On the way home they parked near a park. They began kissing again and then decided to get into the backseat. He asked whether she wanted to have sexual intercourse. As the agreed facts say, the complainant "said she didn't and wanted to wait until she was married. The offender continued to ask the complainant questions regarding her sexuality and virginity and eventually the complainant agreed to have sexual intercourse."