R v HT [2010] NSWSC 324

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : R v HT [2010] NSWSC 324

HEARING DATE(S) : 02/02/10, 26/03/10

JUDGMENT DATE : 23 April 2010

JUDGMENT OF : Hidden J

DECISION : Sentenced to imprisonment for 6 years, NPP 3 years, from 26.3.10.

CATCHWORDS : CRIMINAL LAW - sentence - manslaughter - plea of guilty - excessive self-defence - juvenile offender - use of knife

LEGISLATION CITED : Criminal Procedure Act 1986 Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987

CATEGORY : Sentence

PARTIES : REGINA (Crown) HT (Offender)

FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 2008/69201

COUNSEL : J Pickering (Crown) P Bodor QC (Offender)

SOLICITORS : S Kavanagh (Solicitor for Public Prosecutions) (Crown) Nyman Gibson Stewart (Offender)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION CRIMINAL LIST

HIDDEN J

Friday 23 April 2010

2008/69201 R v HT

REMARKS ON SENTENCE 1 HIS HONOUR: In the early evening of Sunday, 21 December 2008 the offender, who was then 16 years old, fatally stabbed a 17 year old youth on a train which was stopped at Campsie railway station. He was charged with murder, but on the day of his trial he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and the Crown prosecutor accepted that plea in discharge of the indictment. The plea was entered, and accepted, on the basis of excessive self-defence. He also pleaded guilty to a summary offence of carrying a knife in a public place without reasonable excuse, transferred to this Court on a certificate under s 166 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986. 2 Because the offender and the victim were both juveniles at the time, their full names should not be published and the offender should be referred to only by his initials. I shall refer to the victim by his first name, Andrew. Both of them were accompanied by young companions, aged from 15 to 17 at the time, and I shall use their first names also.