Professional Documents
Culture Documents
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
S CR 2016 0077
ADAM WILLIAMSON
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Introduction
1 Adam Williamson you have pleaded guilty to the murder of Kenneth Handford
contrary to s 3A of the Crimes Act 1958, (statutory murder) along with a charge of
for murder is life, and for aggravated burglary is 25 years. Theft carries a maximum
sentence of 10 years.
2 The offences were committed by you and your co-offender, Jonathon Cooper, on
Handford, an elderly widower, lived alone in a cottage there. He was a World War II
veteran who had served with the RAAF. He was 89 years old at the time of his death.
He is survived by an adult son and daughter, five grandchildren and three great
grandchildren.
3 Your co-offender, Cooper, was sentenced by me on 21 April 2017.1 His sentence was
then increased by the Court of Appeal on 12 February 2018.2 Adam Rowe, who
pleaded guilty to assist offender, was sentenced on 8 July 2016 by T Forrest J.3
4 In sentencing you, I have had regard to the Crown Opening for the plea hearing that
was read in open court, along with the depositions and submissions of both parties
and the exhibits tendered on the plea. I have also paid attention to the police statement
made by Cooper and your counsel's cross-examination of Cooper and Rowe on a pre-
trial Basha hearing as well as the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the matter of
Director of Public Prosecutions v Cooper 4. I will deal with certain disputed matters
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Background to the offending
5 You were aged 38 at the time of the offending and your co-offender Cooper was aged
28. You had been associating with one another on a daily basis for some months and
which the pair of you broke into the deceased’s home armed with a knife, late at night
when you expected him to be asleep in bed. The Crown accepted that the original
plan was to break in and search for money, and that the knife was brought along in
case you needed to gain compliance. The charge of aggravated burglary was therefore
based on being armed with a knife, with knowledge or recklessness as to the presence
7 The deceased was selected by you, Williamson, as a potential victim for the
aggravated burglary because of your previous contact with him, and you shared your
knowledge about his circumstances with Cooper. Cooper had not previously known
the deceased. You had come to know Mr Handford when you were employed
harvesting potatoes on the farm owned by the Maher family. Mr Handford was a
trusted employee and friend of the Maher family but you did not get along with him.
In 2014 your employment was terminated when you were suspected of having stolen
from Mr Handford's wallet. You claimed that although Mr Handford later found his
wallet, he continued to accuse you of having taken money from inside the wallet. It
8 Mr Handford was an easy target for the aggravated burglary given the relative
isolation of his residence and that he was elderly and lived alone. From your
knowledge of him, you believed that he was likely to be in possession of a large sum
9 On 13 September 2015 you, Cooper and Cooper’s partner, Tracey Shepherd, went to
Ormond Road, Springbank, to purchase another car for spare parts. After arranging
5 See, DPP v Cooper [2017] VSC 218R [18] and Summary of Prosecution Opening [14].
6 Williamson told Cooper that the deceased was likely to have at least twenty thousand dollars in his
possession.
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DPP v Williamson
the purchase but whilst still in the Springbank area, the three of you drove past the
10 Subsequently, a plan was cemented between you and Cooper that the pair of you
would visit the premises and break in late at night when the deceased was likely to be
asleep. Cooper got hold of a double-edged knife and a balaclava and met up with you
at your home in Ford street later in the evening. The pair of you used ice together and
discussed the planned 'run through'7 in the presence of Jessica Tippet. Cooper
displayed the knife he had brought along with him in order to effect the crime. The
motive for the planned aggravated burglary and theft was to obtain funds to support
11 At some point late that evening Cooper tapped his watch and suggested that it was
time to go. You each donned jackets, Cooper carried the knife and you took a
balaclava. The pair of you left in your green Subaru station wagon,9 and parked some
12 You both approached the house carrying torches, and you, Williamson, wore the
balaclava to disguise your appearance. It was around a quarter to one in the morning
when you broke into the house through the rear door. You were fully aware that
Cooper had the knife with him when you broke into the deceased’s home.
13 The pair of you searched by torchlight for money, and whilst doing so, the deceased
woke up. Cooper shone his torch in the face of the deceased and hit him with it. When
the deceased rolled over in bed, Cooper grabbed his hands and held them down
behind his back. As he struggled and protested, Cooper accused him of being a
paedophile, which he denied. There was a further struggle in which Cooper hit the
deceased's hand with his torch as he tried to reach for his wallet beside his bed.10 The
pair of you then tied the deceased’s hands behind his back with a dressing gown cord
and trussed his ankles together with a nylon cord which was then anchored to the bed.
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DPP v Williamson
Cooper alleged that you forced a gag into the mouth of the deceased. The Crown, in
settling the factual basis for your plea, declined to seek to prove this fact so in those
14 Cooper also alleged that you, Williamson, were searching the room for valuables in
between attempts made by the pair of you to subdue the deceased, and that you had
rolled your balaclava up as you searched around. He claimed that during these events
15 Cooper alleged that whilst he held the knife pointed towards the deceased, you
appeared to shrug your shoulders and give a nod thereby encouraging Cooper to
16 The Crown resolved the factual basis for your plea by declining to contend that you
Therefore, your counsel submitted that I should not find that particular fact of
17 Mr Cooper admitted in his signed statement, that in the course of the encounter with
ultimately stabbed the deceased repeatedly in the back whilst the deceased was tied
up and unable to defend himself. At some stage during the attack the deceased ended
18 Cooper said that he stabbed the deceased mistakenly believing him to be a perpetrator
of child sexual abuse.12 The extreme violence of the attack was said to be triggered by
anger as a result of his own experience of childhood sexual abuse. It was common
ground between the parties at the plea hearing for each of you that any suggestion
that Mr Handford was a paedophile was totally untrue. At any event, in sentencing
Cooper, I did not treat his misplaced belief about that matter as a mitigating
circumstance but noted that it explained his loss of control at the time of the stabbing.
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I will deal with the basis for Cooper’s mistaken belief later.
19 The deceased was left tied up on the floor, grievously injured and died alone. A post
mortem analysis of the deceased’s cardiac pacemaker13 revealed that the attack is
likely to have occurred between 12.47 am and 12.53 am, and that death most likely
occurred at 5.31 am.14 This means that Mr Handford survived for four hours and 38
minutes until succumbing to the injuries that were callously inflicted upon him. He
wounds to the back, including penetrating injuries to the left lung and right kidney.16
20 Before departing the premises, the pair of you stole any items of value you could find.
The Crown alleges that $3,900 in cash was stolen from the deceased along with a gold
21 The pair of you returned from the crime scene to the Ford Street house and showed
Jessica Tippet the stolen wallets, jewellery and war medals taken from the deceased.
She witnessed the counting of banknotes carried out in your bedroom where she was
staying with you for the night. Cooper showed Tippett his bloodied clothing saying
that he would need to burn it and admitting that he had stabbed the deceased. The
pair of you told her that she would hear about the incident on the news as you had
left him tied up, and he would not be able to get up and do anything.17
22 Cooper announced that he would keep the gold chain. The cash was split between the
pair of you. You, Williamson, kept the war medals, which you gave to Adam Rowe to
hide. These were later discovered by police on the day of your arrest, hidden behind
23 Anita Maher, who together with her husband leased the cottage to the deceased and
who regarded him as if he were family, became alarmed on 15 September 2015 when
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DPP v Williamson
she could not get a response to telephone calls. Mrs Maher had the misfortune to
discover Mr Handford’s body lying on the floor of his bedroom with hands and feet
still bound. The crime scene betrayed evidence of the pair of you having gone through
24 Several days after the murder, you, Williamson, confessed to Ms Brereton18 that you
and Cooper had bashed the deceased and tied him up, and that Cooper had stabbed
him. You said to her that you and Cooper searched the place and stole cash and
medals, and you split the cash between the two of you whilst you kept the medals.
You encouraged her to provide a false alibi for you for the weekend that you
committed the offences and you asked her to collect the medals from Adam Rowe and
dispose of them.
25 On another occasion you were also overheard by Allan Brown discussing with Adam
Rowe how you went to the deceased’s house to take his life savings. You later made a
you up.
26 On 25 October 2015 you and Cooper were monitored by police discussing media
Cooper, was arraigned and pleaded guilty to common law murder, aggravated
burglary and theft. However, in the course of the plea hearing on 7th and 8th December
2016, a dispute arose between yourself and the Crown as to the factual and legal basis
for your plea, including as to your awareness of the knife being brought onto the
deceased’s premises, and whether you were present in the room when Cooper
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DPP v Williamson
presented the knife and stabbed the deceased. It transpired after the matter was
the basis of the plea, and because your instructions at that time about your role in the
and inconsistent with a plea to statutory murder under s 3A Crimes Act 1958 .
29 On 10 April 2017, you brought a formal application for leave to withdraw your plea.
On 21 April 2017, after hearing evidence and submissions, leave was granted for this
to occur with a trial date fixed for 2 October 2017. A draft indictment was prepared at
that time charging you with common law murder, with s 3A murder as an alternative,
you again changed course and resolved to plead guilty to a revised indictment. You
hearing was conducted on 10 October 2017 but your sentencing was deferred whilst
awaiting the outcome of the appeal in the matter of Cooper. I take into account such
delay as is not attributable to you in considering sentence, recognising that you have
31 The Crown have said that the s 3A murder charge is composed of your presence and
involvement in the uncharged armed robbery with the act(s) of violence comprised by
32 Your plea now admits presence in the room with Cooper when the deceased was
stabbed, although you denied this at the time you sought to change your plea. You
participated in the violent armed robbery that led to the stabbing of Mr Handford by
Cooper. Cooper’s plea of guilty to common law murder admitted that his actions in
stabbing the deceased allowed the intent for murder to be established beyond
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DPP v Williamson
reasonable doubt in his case. In your case the Crown have not sought to prove that
you had the intent required for murder at the time that you participated with Cooper
in the armed robbery and stabbing. It was Cooper who presented the knife to menace
the deceased, and Cooper who ultimately chose to stab him when he was struggling
and crying out. Nevertheless, your presence assisted and encouraged Cooper in
carrying out this violent armed robbery, after helping to place restraints on the
deceased’s hands and legs. Your conduct was brutal and cowardly.
reasonable doubt that you told Cooper at some stage in advance of the offending that
aggravated burglary.23 Mr Johns QC did not dispute Cooper’s past history of being
sexually abused, but disputed that you ever told Cooper that Mr Handford was a
being induced by this falsehood to make the home of an elderly man a target for the
‘run through’ has the ring of truth about it and involves a logical narration of the
events preceding the stabbing.24 Cooper’s account of the extent of his anger at the time
of the stabbing is also consistent with this mistaken belief. Your admission to
psychologist Simon Candlish25 that you felt responsible for leading Cooper to
Victim Impact
34 On Tuesday, 15 September, 2015 Mr Handford's body was discovered. It was to have
been Mr Handford's 90th birthday. Mr Handford's family and friends are now
23 Statement of Cooper 31 January 2017, 3, affirmed at Basha hearing on 7 September 2017. Cooper’s
explanation is also consistent with that of other witnesses that Williamson said after the event that the
victim was a paedophile: Statement of Jessica Tippett, Depositions 127; Statement of Jessica Brereton,
Depositions 156; Statement of Heath Shepherd, Depositions 149-151, Statement of Allan Brown,
Depositions 615.
24 I am of course obliged to warn myself to consider Cooper’s evidence with caution because of his role
as an accomplice and the risk that his statements are motivated by self-interest. I nevertheless am
satisfied to the criminal standard as to this circumstance of aggravation: R v Storey [1996] VSC 75.
25 Report of Mr Simon Candlish, dated 6 December 2016, tendered as Defence Exhibit B on Plea, 10
October 2017.
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DPP v Williamson
haunted by the memories associated with that day.
35 The court received a large number of victim impact statements from family and
friends, of Mr Handford some of which were read in open court. The first bundle of
victim impact statements tendered to the Court were from Peter Handford, Margaret
Murray, Doreen Handford, Carmel Handford, Shae Murray, Anita Maher, Peter
Maher, Joel Maher, Adrian Maher, Mary Maher, Kevin Maher, Barbara Carter and
Margaret Gull.26 There were four additional statements provided to the court,
36 The victim impact statements reflect the high regard in which Mr Handford was held.
The murder of Kenneth Handford has had a shattering effect on his son and daughter
and their respective families, as well as on his surviving brother and sister-in-law, and
37 Kenneth Handford’s son and daughter-in-law have felt unable to grieve properly
because of the violent way he met his death. His daughter, Margaret Murray, said that
nothing could have prepared her for the way her father died. Each of his
grandchildren have been greatly distressed by the knowledge of what was done to
their grandfather. Ronald Handford said that nothing can take his mind off the way
his brother was murdered. Anita Maher who found Kenneth Handford’s body cannot
forget the traumatic image of what she saw that day. Crimes such as yours diminish
the confidence of the community in the security and safety of their domestic lives.
involvement in these serious crimes. Unlike your co-offender, Cooper, you have not
26 Tendered as Prosecution Exhibit 2 on Plea, 10 October 2017. These statements were initially tendered
in the plea for Jonathan Cooper.
27 Tendered as Prosecution Exhibit 3 on Plea, 10 October 2017: Margaret Murray, Anita Maher, Shae
Murray.
28 A non-juratted copy of the text was included in Prosecution Exhibit 3 on Plea, 10 October 2017. The
original has been handed up at the time of sentence.
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suffered trauma and deprivation in your childhood and upbringing.
39 You are presently 41 years of age and were 38 at the time of the offences. Your parents
appear to have been hardworking loving and responsible. They are now in their mid-
sixties. Your father was a maintenance worker and now works casually as a truck
driver and your mother was formerly employed in manual work. She suffers from
Parkinson's disease and has not been able to visit you in prison. You have three
siblings: an older brother, a younger brother and a younger sister. You have a good
40 You had a happy childhood and upbringing which included outdoor activities of the
were taken hunting and fishing. You looked up to your father who provided a good
role model for you. Unfortunately your older brother has been in trouble with the law
year apprenticeship, and, staying on with the firm for a further three years, your job
came to an end when the firm closed down. You had some temporary work in the
same field in your twenties but became unreliable and lost jobs or left jobs because of
drug use. Your more recent employment was on the potato farm where you met
Mr Handford.
42 You have had two significant relationships. Between the age of 17 and 20, you had an
intimate relationship with a female that ended when she formed an attachment to
your older brother. This led to a rupture in the closeness of your connection to your
older brother.
43 You met your second partner when you were aged 30 and stayed with her for three
years. However, the relationship was not a healthy one and was primarily driven by
mutual drug abuse. There were several separations, and you eventually ended contact
with her.
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44 You have smoked cannabis since your early teens and started using intravenous
amphetamine after the break up with your first girlfriend. You ultimately graduated
to methamphetamine use. You have also tended to abuse alcohol in the past, although
you claim to have ceased this in the last ten years.29 It seems you have been prone to
depression over the course of your life and you have engaged in substance abuse to
45 You attempted to deal with your drug problems in 2012 when your general
practitioner diagnosed you with depression and prescribed medication, but you did
not persist with taking the prescribed medication and drifted back towards
methamphetamines. Drug abuse has impacted on all domains of your life, impairing
your work capacity and your personal relationships, disrupting your sleep patterns
46 You have a limited prior criminal history which includes various appearances for
possession, use and cultivation of cannabis; a firearms storage offence and possess a
prohibited weapon; criminal damage; recklessly deal with proceeds of crime; theft of
a trailer; and fail to appear. You do not have prior convictions for violence.
Psychological assessments
47 A report by Simon Candlish dated 6 December 2016 was tendered at your plea
hearing.30 Mr Candlish had prepared his assessment before your application to change
your plea. He reported that you expressed shame and remorse for the offending.
However, this finding is compromised by the fact that you told Mr Candlish, contrary
to your current instructions, that you were not present with Cooper at the time of the
stabbing.
personality profile and lifestyle, and, in part, on predicting the risk of future offending.
He opined that test results showed you to be a person with substance abuse problems
29 According to the report of Mr Simon Candlish, dated 6 December 2016, tendered as Defence Exhibit B
on Plea, 10 October 2017, [35].
30 Tendered as Defence Exhibit B on Plea, 10 October 2017.
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who was generally unhappy and pessimistic. He said that you present as a socially
considered you met the criteria for Major Depressive Disorder and Stimulant Use
depression was a product of or a cause of your drug abuse or both was difficult for
him to unravel. It is therefore difficult for the court to apportion much weight to
depression as an explanation for your descent into crime, when your mental health
has been inextricably linked with long term chronic drug abuse. Mr Candlish opined
that you were a low risk of violent re-offending, but the significance of his report is
reduced because of the instructions you gave at that time about your role in the
offences.
49 A report of Mr Ian Mackinnon, forensic psychologist, was also tendered for your
plea.32 Mr Mackinnon saw you after your current solicitors took over the handling of
your case. He diagnosed you as suffering Depressed Mood Disorder at the time of his
time of the offending appears to have been manifested by daily abuse of ice. This is
50 Mr Mackinnon did not consider you to have an inherently antisocial character, noting
the absence of prior violent offending. You told Mr Mackinnon that you were
remorseful for your role in the offending and that looking back now it seemed to you
that all of your morals had disappeared at the time of the offences.
the current charges reflect the behaviour of an individual neglecting his normal
community and adult responsibilities, chronically distressed, habitually
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DPP v Williamson
abusing illicit substances and acting in an uncharacteristically antisocial
manner with little thought for the likely consequences of his actions upon
himself, his immediate victims and the wider community.34
52 He observed that you committed the offences despite having had previous contact
with the victim and his family.35 However, he also noted that the time spent on
remand had enabled you to improve your physical and mental health, despite
53 Mr Mackinnon supported your prospects for rehabilitation to some degree, while also
mentioning that you were at risk of relapse into poly substance abuse post-release if
your circumstances at that time are not stable.36 In the end I must make an
independent assessment of your prospects for rehabilitation based on all the material
before me, including your conduct since these proceedings have been on foot.
is regarded as objectively very serious in part because of the risk of violence ensuing
once armed entry is gained even in the absence of a specific plan to engage in a violent
confrontation.
55 This was a very serious example of aggravated burglary.37 You exploited your
knowledge of the deceased in selecting his home as the target for the offence and you
involved Cooper for the purpose of breaking in late at night when it was likely that
Mr Handford would be in bed. Knowing that Cooper was armed with a knife the pair
of you forced entry into Mr Handford’s dwelling through the back door.
56 Despite the crime of aggravated burglary being complete at the moment of entry, and
notwithstanding that the agreed plan was to break in and steal rather than for a
planned violent confrontation, the gravity of this particular aggravated burglary was
34 Ibid 6.
35 Ibid 7.
36 Ibid 5.
37 See criteria for assessing seriousness in DPP v Meyers (2014) VR 486, 498 [48], reiterated in Maslen v R
[2018] VSCA 90, [37].
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DPP v Williamson
made plain in the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Cooper38 Firm denunciation is
warranted . It is important that others are deterred from offences of this nature by the
57 Your moral culpability for your role in the aggravated burglary is high and you must
be sentenced on the basis that you were the driving force behind it because of your
past association with Mr Handford and because of your knowledge of his habits of
58 This was also a grave example of the crime of statutory murder under s 3A Crimes Act
based on your complicity in the armed robbery in the course of which Cooper fatally
stabbed the deceased.39 You are therefore criminally responsible although you did not
inflict the stab wounds to Mr Handford. I acknowledge that consistent with the
crowns acceptance of your plea to statutory murder, and the way the plea hearing
was conducted, you should be sentenced on the basis that murderous intent has not
been established and that you did not intend for Mr Handford to be killed when you
59 The fact that Cooper impulsively inflicted all of the stab wounds makes his role in the
murder of the deceased significantly greater than yours. But despite the absence of
murderous intent you assisted in tying up the deceased who was a vulnerable, elderly
man, and you were present throughout the commission of the stabbing. You
participated in the ransacking of the home and theft of personal belongings whilst Mr
Handford was left to die. It was accepted on your behalf that your callous conduct in
leaving your victim tied up and helpless after the stabbing was an aggravating feature
of the offending.
60 Whilst I must avoid double punishment in apportioning sentences for the crime of
statutory murder, and for the crime of aggravated burglary, and I must give
38 DPP v Cooper [2018] VSCA 21 [47]-[48]. The court described it as towards the upper end of the scale of
seriousness for the offence.
39 Crimes Act 1958 ss 323, 324.
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DPP v Williamson
consideration to your lesser role in the murder, I am obliged to pay heed to the Court
of Appeal's indication in the case of Cooper that had he not pleaded guilty and given
assistance to the Crown, the appropriate head sentence for the charge of murder at
common law would have been life imprisonment40 as well as for the offending as a
whole.41
offending did not operate to mitigate sentence. This is of course correct and I take the
explanation for your loss of victim empathy and proper morality. However, your long
term drug addiction and failure to pursue sustained treatment does mean that your
62 You have been prescribed antidepressants in custody on remand and have been
housed in the protection stream of the prison because of the nature of your crime.
Nevertheless, in your favour you have managed to work as a billet. You have also
completed some short courses42 and have been regularly visited by your sister.
63 Mr Johns QC submitted that despite your plea being a late plea, there was some basis
for finding your plea of guilty to be a sign of contrition. He suggested that there were
glimmers of insight in your earlier consultation with Simon Candlish, before your
change of plea, where you told him that the offending was all your fault because you
took Cooper to Mr Handford's house. He also submitted that you had always been
willing to plead guilty to aggravated burglary,43 although you disputed knowing that
Cooper was armed with the knife at the time you sought to change your plea.44
64 Mr Johns submitted that although Cooper pleaded guilty at an earlier stage and gave
40 Ibid [51].
41 Ibid [56].
42 A course on managing emotions and one on managing anxiety.
43 On the basis of person present but without reference to the knife.
44 Therefore, the particularisation of the charge of aggravated burglary to include carriage of a knife—as
it was on the earlier plea indictment—was also in dispute when the change of plea application was
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DPP v Williamson
assistance to the Crown, your prospects for rehabilitation were brighter than Cooper’s
because Cooper had a prior conviction for aggravated burglary and convictions for
burglary, and had received a somewhat bleak assessment of future risk from a
psychologist , Ms Cidoni.45
65 The Crown suggested that the Court should approach the question of remorse in your
case with circumspection and that although you are entitled to a utilitarian discount
for your pleas of guilty, it should be at the lower end of the scale. This was because of
the lateness of your guilty pleas in the context of the procedural history of your case
66 In comparing your prospects for rehabilitation with those of Cooper, the Crown
submitted that Cooper offered to plead guilty after the committal, stuck to his plea,
accordance with that statement. The Crown submitted that a finding by the court that
not lead to a finding that your prospects are better than reasonable in all of the
circumstances, even taking account of your less significant criminal history and more
Cooper’s future prospects after release from prison was greatly influenced by his
fulsome cooperation with the authorities, my finding as to his contrition and his
willingness to testify for the prosecution against you. It should also be said that
Cooper’s continued willingness to give evidence against you assisted the Crown in
their ultimate resolution of the case against you, which occurred after Cooper was
sentenced by me.
68 Cooper was ten years younger than you at the time you became accomplices in this
criminal offending, and he pleaded guilty at a relatively early stage compared to you.
made.
45 Based on the application of the VRAG (Violence Risk Appraisal Guide).
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DPP v Williamson
Whilst it is true that Cooper’s disposition for violence appears more pronounced46
than yours, this may be partly the result of Cooper’s highly dysfunctional childhood
feature of your offending that you knew Mr Handford and some of his extended
family members personally,47 and knowing that he was elderly and lived alone you
69 Nevertheless, although you cannot rely on the same factors of cooperation and
assistance as Cooper, your absence of prior violent offending, and the fact that you
have some capacity for skilled employment are matters in your favour if you are able
to overcome your drug abuse when you are released. The report of Mr Mackinnon
favoured your prospects to some degree. On the other hand, the presence of true
remorse is not prominent even factoring in your belated guilty plea, and it is certainly
less advanced than in the case of Cooper. Balancing all of these matters, I assess your
sentence imposed on Cooper, I made reference to comparable cases and data for the
offences of murder and aggravated burglary, although I did not refer to statutory
murder. However, there has not been sufficient data on statutory murder for
down. I must therefore obtain such guidance as I can from the Court of Appeal’s
71 In Cooper, their Honours concluded that the murder committed by the respondent was
at the high end of the spectrum of seriousness for common law murder. The Court of
Appeal reached the same conclusion in the case of Director of Public Prosecutions v
46 Based on the report of Gina Cidoni and Cooper’s past criminal history and background.
47 Report of Ian Mackinnon, dated 5 October 2017, 5.
48 Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) s 5(2)(b).
49 [2016] VSCA 152.
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DPP v Williamson
Arthur,50 which was handed down two weeks after Cooper. In Arthur it was also said
that absent the accused having pleaded guilty and offering evidence against the co-
offenders, the gravity of the offending would have warranted a head sentence of life
72 In Cooper, it was considered that a higher sentence was also warranted for the charge
crime, and since Cooper had a prior conviction for aggravated burglary and other
convictions for burglary, specific deterrence deserved more weight in sentencing him
on that charge, along with more emphasis to general deterrence, just punishment, and
increased with the court indicating the view, echoed also in Arthur, that too much
Appeal determined that without his plea of guilty (and presumably his cooperation)
warranted.
73 In your case I am inclined to regard the murder as at the high end of the spectrum of
such cases of statutory murder where murderous intent is not established. Statutory
murder does not always necessitate a finding that murderous intent is absent, nor
lead to a conclusion that a sentence under s 3A Crimes Act 1958 must be less than for
common law murder.52 But in your case, the Crown chose not to press for a finding
Crimes Act 1958, distinguishing your position from that of Cooper. This matter , along
with the fact that you were not the person who stabbed the deceased, together with
your plea of guilty53 is relevant to consideration of a just sentence. These factors also
impact on my assessment of the sentence I would have imposed for statutory murder
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DPP v Williamson
had you not pleaded guilty. However, in considering your sentence alongside the
sentence of 22 years imposed by the Court of Appeal on Cooper for common Law
murder I take into account that the Court of Appeal must still have given weight to
Cooper’s assistance to the authorities,54 remorse and relatively early plea of guilty. It
is also relevant to your sentencing under s 3A Crimes Act 1958 that Cooper’s violent
attack on the deceased came about in the context of your previous assertion to him
that the deceased was a paedophile. However, I accept that you did not intend or
foresee the extent to which Cooper would lose control of himself during the armed
robbery.
against Cooper is that you have a less significant criminal history. Also, you offered
to plead guilty to aggravated burglary after the committal only disputing the
particularisation of the offence.55 These factors have to be balanced against the fact
that you were the driving force behind the aggravated burglary and knew Mr
Handford personally. Cooper entered an earlier plea to the charge, was found to be
75 There is little to distinguish the sentence that should be imposed for the theft between
76 I have considered your age at the date of sentencing and all the factors personal to you
plea.
Conclusion
77 In sentencing you, I take into account just punishment, general deterrence,
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DPP v Williamson
78 Specific deterrence57 has some limited weight due to your history of drug abuse and
criminal history although this factor was not given any emphasis by the Crown at the
plea hearing.
79 I must also apply the principle of parsimony under s 5(3) of the Sentencing Act 1991.
80 In structuring the sentence I must also give effect to the principle of totality and as
82 In light of all the above mentioned considerations I have concluded that the following
83 On the charge of murder contrary to s 3A of the Crimes Act 1958 you are sentenced to
84 On the charge of aggravated burglary you are sentenced to be imprisoned for eight
years.
85 On the charge of theft you are sentenced to be imprisoned for two years and six
months.
86 I direct that two years of the sentence for aggravated burglary be served cumulatively
88 I direct that you serve a period of 23 years before you are eligible to apply for release
on parole.
89 I declare that your pre-sentence detention is a period of 903 days not including this
day and direct that this be entered in the records of the court and reckoned as time
SC:IS 20 SENTENCE
DPP v Williamson
90 Under s 6AAA of the Sentencing Act I direct that, but for your plea of guilty, I would
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CERTIFICATE
I certify that this and the 20 preceding pages are a true copy of the reasons for Sentence
of Jane Dixon J of the Supreme Court of Victoria delivered on 17 April 2018.
Associate
SC:IS 21 SENTENCE
DPP v Williamson