R v Pearce [2020] NSWDC 176

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Pearce [2020] NSWDC 176 Hearing dates: 26 March 2020 Date of orders: 26 March 2020 Decision date: 26 March 2020 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Bennett SC DCJ Decision: 1 Allow the appeal in each case 2 Confirm the indicative sentences identified by the magistrate as appropriate 3 Specify an aggregate term of imprisonment of 2 years to be served by way of ICO Catchwords: SENTENCING — Appeal against sentence Legislation Cited: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 Cases Cited: Bugmy [2013] HCA 37 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Regina (Crown) Christopher Marni Pearce (Appellant) Representation: Michael Belcher (Crown) Jesse Sinclair (Appellant)

Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) (Crown) Aboriginal Legal Service (Appellant) File Number(s): 2019/000542420; 2019/00327784 & 2019/000521640 Decision under appeal Court or tribunal: Local Court Jurisdiction: Criminal Date of Decision: 13 January 2020 Before: Prowse LCM File Number(s): 2019/000542420; 2019/00327784 & 2019/000521640

EX TEMPORE REVISED JUDGEMENT

INTRODUCTION 1. Christopher Pearce was born in mid-1994 and this year will turn 26 years of age. He is an indigenous man and from the history that he has given, not challenged in cross-examination after he gave his evidence in chief, he has experienced life through his formative years up to adulthood such that it attracts consideration of the principles expressed in Bugmy [2013] HCA 37 because of the disadvantage to which he has been subject. 2. This notwithstanding he has according to his evidence demonstrated some aptitude for school achieving Year 10 without doing better because of his failure to comply with course requirements it appears. 3. He has after school engaged upon studies through tertiary institutions in civil construction, agriculture, horticulture and is a qualified site surveyor he told me. I have no supporting material in respect of any of that but I will accept his evidence. He gave it in a forthright manner, it has not been the subject of challenge, and leads me to the view that he demonstrates some potential as a member of the community, consistent I might say with what the sentence assessment report has provided. 4. He is assessed at a medium risk of reoffending which, upon what I have before me, does not seem to be too far from the mark. He has effectively no antecedent record apart from the misconduct that has him before this Court.