DPP v Evelyn [2026] VCC 468

She's got seven days, 48 grand. She's got seven days, you tell her. Seven days, mate. 48,000 cash. She stole my watches, all my OMEGA watches, all of them. My whole collection, yeah? She stole them. She's got seven days, seven fucking days. I'm serious, mate.

1. At one point, you noticed the man filming and said, 'Who's this cunt here? You got a problem, buddy?' He responded, 'No, no problem, just making sure everyone's all right.' Your ex-partner's father asked you who the man out the front had been. You then said to him, 'Mate, keep fucking acting like a fucking dumb cunt and my word, I'll burn this house to the ground with you in it.' That is Charge 1, threat to destroy property.
2. Shortly after this you left the address on an electric scooter.
3. Police were called immediately after the incident. You were arrested on 12 October 2024. You were heavily drug‑affected such that you were deemed unfit for interview.

1. You threatened to burn down your elderly victim's home. At the time you were in breach of a family violence intervention order made in favour of his daughter, your ex‑partner who was also present. You were drug‑affected and screaming and he no doubt believed your threat. You knew you were not to go within 5 metres of your ex‑partner yet you remained so for some minutes.
2. It goes without saying the offences committed in a family violence context are serious. While I did not receive a victim impact statement from either of your victims this would have been a frightening experience for both of them given your erratic behaviour and your intoxication at the time.

1. While a contested committal was held, the matter resolved on the basis offered by you before that committal took place. Therefore I consider your plea to be an early one.
2. By your plea you have saved the courts and the community the time and expense of running a trial and you have spared your victims the ordeal of giving evidence before a jury. Your plea has facilitated the course of justice and you are entitled to a benefit for its utilitarian value.
3. Your plea is further acceptance of responsibility for your offending and evidence of some level of remorse.

1. I turn now to your personal circumstances. You are 44 years old, having been born in September 1981 in Frankston. You have a twin brother from whom you are presently estranged. Your parents separated when you were in grade one.
2. Your parents were both alcoholics and you report witnessing a lot of violence in the home during the time they were together. You state your mother made two attempts to flee the house, one being with you and your brother, and the other alone. Once your parents separated, you remained in your mother's care whilst your father moved to Darwin. Your mother did not allow you to see your father for a period of time.
3. Your mother had transient accommodation and was involved in frequent short‑term relationships until she eventually re-partnered. You report ongoing neglect when you were under her care, but despite your mother's treatment of you and her alcoholism, you liked her new partner. He was neither violent nor a user of drugs or alcohol, and you maintain a relationship with him to this day.
4. You report that at the age of 10, due to mistreatment, you and your brother left home and began sleeping in boat sheds, at the beach, or at truck stops. You would steal to get by. Eventually, you were returned to your mother by authorities at the age of 11. You spent the next few years alternating between your mother and father's care, ultimately remaining in your father's care. You describe improved living conditions with your father.
5. Although your father would consume a lot of alcohol, you report having stable accommodation, food and clothing, and you were supported to attend school. Your father would be verbally abusive to his partner and at times physically abusive towards you. He died from lung cancer in 2015.
6. Due to your transient lifestyle, you attended five different primary schools and two different high schools. You were frequently suspended for misbehaving. You had trouble concentrating at school, however, you managed to complete year 10.
7. You began using cannabis and cigarettes at the age of 13. You started to use ecstasy and speed at the age of 17.
8. After high school, you commenced an engineering course at TAFE, but soon took up employment at a factory instead. You worked in various manual positions. Your longest period of employment was a year, but you have not worked since 2008.
9. At the age of 20, you moved to Tasmania to reside with your paternal uncle. This was a decision you made in an effort to abstain from drugs. You stayed there for 18 months before returning to Victoria and returned to drug use, this time using speed intravenously. You began consuming methamphetamines in your mid‑20s. You report occasional use of heroin, sporadic use of Xanax and cocaine
10. Your most serious relationship commenced when you were 25 years of age and produced one child who's now age 17. Your daughter was two or three years old when you separated and you have not seen her since. You report another relationship from which you have an 11‑year‑old son. You have not seen him since he was three or four years old, but you maintain contact with him through letters and are due to have a supervised visit in the coming weeks.
11. You report not having consumed alcohol in a long time and claim that you have not been intoxicated for 10 years. You further report that while you've been abstinent from all substances since your incarceration in 2024, while in custody, you were placed on a medical opioid substitution treatment, which you continued to take.
12. You completed several courses in custody and I received a number of certificates to that effect, including a criminal justice model course run through the forensic group. You were a prison peer educator while in custody.
13. You were released from custody in October 2025 to enter a residential rehabilitation facility, the Bridge Program run by the Salvation Army. You completed a 16‑week intake programme and have almost completed a seven‑week extension course.
14. I received a psychological report from Ms Erin Cutler dated 18 March 2026. You report a previous diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Ms Cutler diagnosed you with severe stimulant disorder and sedative hypnotic or anxiolytic use disorders, both in remission in a controlled environment.
15. You reported a history of anxiety and depression, the former no longer present and the latter controlled by medication. You told Ms Cutler that you have completed schema therapy throughout the past 12 months and wish to return to such treatment
16. Ms Cutler found that you are motivated to turn your life around and remain both drug and crime free. You have goals to complete the course of study which you are enrolled in, obtain stable accommodation and foster a relationship with your son.

1. You have a prior conviction for breaching a family violence intervention order in relation to the same victim from 2024. You also have a lengthy prior criminal history for drug dishonesty, weapons, driving and assault emergency worker offences amongst others. While you are not to be re‑sentenced for those offences, they are relevant to my assessment of specific deterrence and your prospects of rehabilitation.
2. You need to understand from the sentence I impose that conduct such as this will result in a term of imprisonment.
3. Similarly, the community must see that threats and breaches of court orders will not be tolerated, and the consequence of domestic violence offending of this nature is immediate imprisonment.
4. Just punishment and denunciation are also relevant considerations and I take them into account.
5. It was submitted on your behalf that the principles in Bugmy v The Queen[1] are applicable in your case, in a general rather than a specific sense, given your exposure to alcoholism, drug use and mental illness, neglect, family violence, housing instability and periods of homelessness at a young age. These principles contemplate a background of deprivation that may compromise a person's capacity to mature and to learn from experience.
6. I consider that some moderation of your moral culpability is necessary as compared with an offender whose formative years were not so marred.
7. In turn, the need for community protection is elevated. Members of the community, particularly the elderly and those protected by court orders, must be protected from you, but I consider that this has been achieved by your remand on these charges.
8. While I consider your prospects of rehabilitation to be guarded given your extensive criminal history and your high risk assessment for general re‑offending, you are now progressing in the right direction. You are seeking stable housing and employment and your completion of the Bridge Programme and your enrolment in a certificate three course, together with your engagement with mental health and alcohol and other drug treatment, bodes well for your future.
9. I also take into account the period of time you have spent in residential rehabilitation since your release from custody.

1. Ms McWilliam, appearing for you, submitted that I should defer the matter for a period of months in contemplation of an adjourned undertaking, should you demonstrate progress in the intervening period. I disagree, particularly in light of your domestic violence prior matter.
2. Mr Komesaroff, appearing for the prosecution, submitted that a combination sentence would fall within the available range. He submitted that general and specific deterrence, denunciation and just punishment have largely been achieved by the period you have already served in custody, but that I should impose an additional community correction order to address community protection and rehabilitation.
3. You have made substantial efforts at rehabilitation and in my view have served more than enough time in custody to address the sentencing principles. I intend to impose a straight sentence entirely made up of time served.

1. Would you please stand, Mr Evelyn.
2. On Charge 1, threatened to destroy property, you are sentenced to 90 days' imprisonment.
3. On related Summary Charge 1, contravene family violence intervention order, you are sentenced to 90 days' imprisonment.
4. I direct that Charge 1 be the base sentence.
5. I direct that 30 days of the sentence imposed on the related summary charge be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed on charge one.
6. That makes a total effective sentence of 120 days imprisonment.
7. Pursuant to s 18 of the Sentencing Act 1991, I declare that you have served 120 days by way of pre‑sentenced detention.
8. Pursuant to s 6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, I declare that had you not pleaded guilty, the sentence I would have imposed would have been a total effective sentence a 14 months' imprisonment with a non‑parole period of 10 months.
9. You may be seated, Mr Evelyn. Is there anything further, Mr Cheng, from the prosecution perspective?
10. MR CHENG: Nothing further, Your Honour.
11. HER HONOUR: Ms McWilliam, is there anything further from you?
12. MS McWILLIAM: No, Your Honour.
13. HER HONOUR: Thank you, Mr Evelyn. You're going in the right direction. Keep up the study and stay away from the court. Thank you. We'll adjourn until Wednesday.