R v King [2019] NSWDC 865

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v King [2019] NSWDC 865 Hearing dates: 27 November 2019, 6 December 2019 Date of orders: 06 December 2019 Decision date: 06 December 2019 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Bright DCJ Decision: Sentenced to a non‑parole period of two years to date from 2 February 2019 and expire on 1 February 2021. The balance of the term is one year and four months to expire on 1 June 2022. The total term of imprisonment is three years and four months Catchwords: SENTENCE – Assault with intent to rob Legislation Cited: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 Crimes Act 1900 Cases Cited: Bugmy v R [2013] HCA 37 Category: Sentence Parties: Regina (Crown) James Stephen King (Offender) Representation: Solicitors: Mr D Hoitink for the Crown Mr D Gibbons for the Offender File Number(s): 2019/00035792 Publication restriction: Nil

SENTENCE 1. James Stephen King, 38 years of age, appears for sentence in relation to one offence of assault with intent to rob, an offence pursuant to s 95(1) Crimes Act. The maximum prescribed penalty for that offence is 20 years imprisonment. There is no prescribed standard non‑parole period. 2. The offender pleaded guilty on 13 September 2019 at the Gosford Local Court. Having regard to the timing of the plea, I propose to allow discount on sentence of 25%. 3. The offender has been in custody bail refused since the date of his arrest on 2 February 2019. Accordingly, the sentence imposed today will be backdated to that date.

The Agreed Facts 1. The agreed facts are as follows: Around 5.30pm on 2 February 2019 the victim Meaghan Buddeke attended the Sunken Monkey Hotel in Erina with her friend Erika Dart. Upon arriving at the hotel the victim and Dark began drinking alcohol and playing the poker machines. 2. At approximately 6.30pm the victim and Dark won a poker machine jackpot of $11,909,46. The victim and Dark immediately celebrated by high fiving each other, cheering and clapping and yelling a number of things including, "We've won $12,000". 3. A short time later the victim and Dark went to the main bar at the hotel and collected their jackpot winnings. They received $5,000 in cash which was counted out onto the bar by the hotel duty manager, Timothy Slater, and the remainder in the form of a cheque. The victim and Dart then purchased more drinks and continued to play the poker machines. 4. The offender, James King, was drinking at the Sunken Monkey Hotel on the evening. He attended the hotel alone. He was dressed in a dark T-shirt with a floral pattern on the back, shorts and thongs. From around 6pm the offender drank beer in the main bar and poker machine areas of the hotel. During this time the offender walked up and down behind a number of patrons who were playing the poker machines, observing their games. The offender said to one patron, "Bloody horses, I've lost all my money on the horses". The offender was present in the poker machine area while the victim and Dart were loudly celebrating their jackpot win. The offender was present in the main bar area approximately five metres away from the victim and Dart when they collected their cash winnings. 5. At approximately 7pm the victim left Dart to use the female bathrooms. She walked from the poker machine area through the main bar into an adjoining corridor and then into the bathrooms. 6. At this time the offender was drinking beer in the main bar. He observed the victim walk past him and enter the corridor to the bathrooms. Seconds later he placed his beer down on a table and followed the victim down the corridor leading to the bathrooms. 7. The victim observed that there was nobody else in the female bathrooms, she entered a cubicle and began to use the toilet. Upon finishing she stood up holding her pursue under her left armpit and unlocked the cubicle door. As the door was unlocked the offender forcefully pushed it open. He then placed his left hand over the victim's mouth and pushed her back into the cubicle and up against the toilet. He said, "You are going to give my your wallet". He then held the victim's face with his left hand and punched her repeatedly to the left side of her face with his right fist. The offender then dragged the victim out of the cubicle by her clothing and threw her against a sink. The victim attempted to escape, managing to open a door that adjoined the bathrooms to a vestibule area. The offender followed her into the vestibule area and grabbed her by the face. He then hit her head into a wall a number of times. The offender then used his right elbow to strike the victim to the head several times. During this incident the victim was screaming for help. 8. At this time a number of people including patron Taylor Ellis and hotel staff Grace Fowles and Christen D'Agostino heard the screams of a distressed female coming from the bathrooms. All three rushed into the adjoining corridor and attempted to enter the female bathroom. However, the offender initially leaned on the door between the corridor and the vestibule to the bathroom preventing it from opening. Eventually the offender released the door allowing it to open. D'Agostino and Fowles then entered the vestibule to the bathroom and observed the victim slouched against a wall while the offender stood over her and punched her a number of times to the face and neck. 9. The offender then ran past D'Agostino and Fowles, exiting the bathroom. He did not have the victim's wallet with him at this time. A patron, Michael Scicluna approached the offender and said, "What are you doing in the ladies toilets mate". The offender pushed past the patron and walked away through the bistro area of the hotel and towards the front door. 10. The patron chased after the offender and attempted to restrain him, grabbing his shirt and causing it to rip. The two men wrestled briefly before the offender freed himself and exited the building through the front door that led to the car park. 11. The duty manager, Timothy Slater, had been alerted to the disturbance and ran out the front door of the premises, at which point he saw the offender walking through the car park, the offender ran away crossing a number of nearby streets in an attempt to escape. The duty manager chased after him on foot maintaining continuous sight of him while speaking to emergency operators on his phone. 12. The offender and the duty manager were intercepted by police at the Platinum Plaza Erina, less than a kilometre away from the Sunken Monkey Hotel. The offender was placed under arrest. He declined to participate in a record of interview. 13. The victim was taken by ambulance to Gosford Hospital for treatment. As a result of the assault by the offender she suffered bruising to her face, the back of her head and her right arm, whiplash to her neck, a four centimetre cut above her left eye and a small cut to the back of her right leg. 14. The victim's wallet was later discovered on the floor of the female bathrooms where the assault had occurred with its contents, including the cash winnings from the poker machine jackpots strewn nearby. 15. At the time of his arrest the offender was photographed by police. These photographs show him as a man of large build wearing a dark T-shirt with a floral pattern on the back, light coloured shorts and thongs. These features were consistent with the description given by various persons who saw the offender. 16. Police later obtained CCTV footage from the Sunken Monkey Hotel which showed the offender placing his beer on the table and following the victim down the corridor leading to the female bathroom seconds before the alleged assault.