R v JDX; JDX v R [2017] NSWCCA 9

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: R v JDX; JDX v R [2017] NSWCCA 9 Hearing dates: 17 November 2016 Decision date: 13 February 2017 Before: Basten JA at [1]; Campbell J at [51]; N Adams J at [116] Decision: (1) Grant the offender leave to appeal against the sentences imposed by the District Court on 5 June 2015 for two offences under s 25(2) of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985.

(2) Allow the appeals of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the offender against the sentences.

(3) Quash the sentences imposed by the District Court and resentence the offender as follows:

(a) on count 1, impose a fixed term of 6 years imprisonment to commence on 1 February 2014 and expire on 31 January 2020; (b) on count 2, impose a sentence of 8 years 4 months imprisonment, involving a non-parole period of 5 years 8 months to commence on 1 August 2014 and expire on 31 March 2020 and a balance of term of 2 years 8 months to commence on 1 April 2020 and expire on 30 November 2022.

(4) The earliest date on which the applicant will be eligible for conditional release will thus be 31 March 2020. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – sentencing – principle of totality – accumulation of sentences – where sentences for supply of drugs accumulated on long sentence for a murder conviction subsequently set aside – whether sentence should be varied once other sentence quashed – whether non-parole period manifestly inadequate when murder sentence removed

CRIMINAL LAW – sentencing – supply of drugs – two offences involving different drugs – relevance of quantity as a factor of prescribed large commercial quantities – proportionality