R v FARRELL [2018] NSWDC 327

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v FARRELL [2018] NSWDC 327 Hearing dates: 5 October 2018 Date of orders: 02 November 2018 Decision date: 02 November 2018 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Judge S Norrish QC Decision: Full time custodial sentence – for complete orders see [70]-[71] Catchwords: CRIMINAL - Sentence – sexual assaults of altar boys by a priest – historical crimes – breach of trust – totality – aggregate sentence – pre-existing aggregate sentence – special circumstances Legislation Cited: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 Crimes Act 1900 Cases Cited: Fisher (1989) 48 A Crim R 442 Hammoud (2000) 118 A Crim R 66 Pearce v The Queen (1998) 194 CLR 610 R v JM [2014] NSWCCA 297 R v XX (2009) 195 A Crim R 38 Category: Sentence Parties: Regina John Joseph Farrell Representation: Counsel: Mr B Rowe (Crown) Mr L Brasch (Offender)

Solicitors: NSW Director of Public Prosecutions (Crown) APJ Law (Offender) File Number(s): 2015/186280 Publication restriction: No publication of any information tending to identify the complainants.

Judgment

INTRODUCTION 1. HIS HONOUR: John Joseph Farrell appears today for sentence in relation to a number of offences committed by him between November 1981 and December 1983 at Moree and Narrabri when he was a priest working primarily at St Francis Xavier Catholic Church at Moree. 2. The victims in each instance were school children who attended the local parish school at Moree, St Philomena's, and who were also altar boys at the church where the prisoner worked as a Deacon then a Priest. 3. In respect of the victim DW and the victim DJ, (with the exception of one count relating to DJ) the prisoner is to be sentenced having pleaded not guilty at his trial conducted in March and April 2018. The victim DW gave oral evidence at the trial. DJ, who was deceased, had complained of the prisoner's conduct towards him in 1987 but the prisoner after being charged was discharged at committal in 1988. DJ's evidence at the committal proceedings was tendered in the trial before me. The charges relating to the victim MR were listed for trial on 11 April 2017, but the prisoner pleaded guilty on that date before another Judge to the counts of indecent assault relating to him. 4. On the first day of the trial conducted before me in March/April this year, the prisoner pleaded "guilty" to Count 1 on the indictment, an allegation of indecent assault concerning DJ. He pleaded "not guilty" to the remaining seven counts concerning that victim, which included offences of indecent assault and sexual intercourse without consent of a person under the age of 16 years. The offences were committed over a 24 hour period just before Anzac Day 1983. The allegations of DJ were revived after DJ had died and when the prisoner was charged with highly similar offences against a large number of altar boys from Moree committed during the early 1980s. Most of that offending was dealt with by his Honour Judge Zahra SC on 2 May 2016. The offences against DJ were contemporaneous with those other offences. 5. The various offences for which the prisoner is to be sentenced, with the maximum penalties and the range of dates within which they occurred are set out in the Table of Offences which is annexed as Appendix A. 6. Although the matter was not the subject of lengthy discussion in the submissions relating to sentence, I propose to give the prisoner a 5% discount for the utilitarian benefit of the plea of guilty in respect of the one count relating to DJ, to which the prisoner pleaded guilty before me, and 10% for the five counts relating to MR to which he pleaded guilty last year before another Judge. There was hardly any utilitarian benefit in the plea of guilty as to DJ. All of his evidence had been given 30 years before and it was reread for the trial. In context the reduction of sentence is somewhat academic, particularly given that the most serious offending with which I am concerned was the subject of pleas of "not guilty". "Totality" principles will demand considerable overlapping of sentence for the offences for which I impose sentences amongst themselves but also to some extent with sentences imposed by Judge Zahra SC.