Director of Public Prosecutions v Matthew Simon Freeman
[2011] NSWLC 8
At a glance
Source factsCourt
Local Court of NSW
Decision date
2011-04-20
Catchwords
- R v Houlton (2000) 49 NSWLR 383 R v Way (2004) 60 NSWLR 168 R v Weldon
Source
Original judgment source is linked above.
Catchwords
Judgment (11 paragraphs)
The Charges and the plea 1The offender has pleaded guilty to one charge of making a false statement amounting to perjury on 24 September 2008, and six charges of using fabricated false evidence to mislead a judicial tribunal between 27 August and 24 September 2008, in breach of sections 327 and 317 of the Crimes Act 1900. Three of the six charges pursuant to section 317 are to be dealt with on a Form 1 in respect of the perjury allegation. The matter came before me for sentence on 6 April 2011 with Ms Curran appearing for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Mr Eardley of counsel for the offender. At the completion of submissions I reserved my decision until today. 2The offender pleaded guilty to all charges on 23 February 2011. An issue has arisen between the DPP and the representatives of the accused as to whether the plea was entered at the earliest possible opportunity. The DPP contends that the plea was not entered at the earliest opportunity but at a date some 6 months after the charge of perjury was initially laid, it being laid approximately 6 weeks before the balance of the charges. The offender says that the plea was entered at the first opportunity and that a full 25% discount should be extended for the utilitarian value of the plea in accordance with R v Thomson; R v Houlton (2000) 49 NSWLR 383 . 3I have resolved this issue by reference to the unchallenged chronology submitted by the DPP and my own examination of the court papers. The perjury charge was laid on the 2 September 2010 and the use false fabricated evidence to mislead a judicial tribunal charges on the 13 October 2010. It is clear that from an early date in the proceedings the parties were engaged in discussions and negotiations regarding the pleas to be entered and the facts that would be put before the court on sentence, and that a plea of not guilty was not at any time entered by the offender. It is to be noted that the charges that I am to sentence the offender in respect of are the same as those initially preferred. There has not been any variation to those charges following the lengthy negotiations that have taken place. The fact remains however that the pleas of guilty were not entered until 23 February 2011, being the fifth occasion that the matter came before the court. Given that fact alone, the plea of guilty could not in my view be said to have been entered at the first available opportunity. It was always open to the offender to enter pleas of guilty and to indicate to the court that negotiations regarding the facts were ongoing. Generally the reason for the delay in the plea is irrelevant to the assessment of the discount to be afforded, because if it is not forthcoming then the utilitarian value is reduced. This is so even if there has been a plea bargain of some sort which is not the case here - see R v Borkowski [2009] NSWCCA 102. In these circumstances and allowing for the period of negotiation in which the parties engaged I allow a 20% discount for the utilitarian value of the plea.