DPP v Ferguson [2025] VCC 1815

1. You met Ellie Gibson via the Tinder dating app on or around the 11th of August 2022. You soon exchanged phone numbers and began to communicate directly. By 23 September 2022, you were dating exclusively and Ms Gibson and her two children moved in to live with you and your two tenants, at your house in Drouin.
2. Your relationship was a turbulent one, marred by multiple incidents of uncharged abuse and physical violence in the form of family violence. Often these arguments and the violence revolved around issues concerning infidelity.
3. By 13 February 2023, you asked the victim and her children to move out of your house, and she returned to live with her parents.
4. You then had an "on again off again" relationship with Ms Gibson over the next 7 months. When you learned that Ms Gibson had met another male during one of these breaks in your relationship, you argued, got drunk, damaged her property and were abusive via text.
5. By August 2023 you continued to argue but had seemingly reconciled your relationship, but the family violence continued. By September of that year, despite the difficulties you were experiencing in your relationship, you both flew to Vietnam on a prepaid trip to attend a wedding. The trip was not a happy one, and the status of your relationship with Ms Gibson was unclear.
6. By 23 September of that year, Ms Gibson was still keen to try and keep the relationship alive. She made plans to celebrate your "anniversary". You had fought the preceding night, and you did not attend the planned anniversary lunch at the 'Family Hotel', nor the subsequent round of mini golf she had arranged.
7. Ms Gibson instead spent the day with her friends. Later that evening, you attended a local hotel and saw Ms Gibson "hooking up" with another man. You confronted her and asked her if she was "fucking serious". An argument ensued and continued the next day via text message until you ultimately "blocked" her. As you did not contact her during the following week, Ms Gibson assumed that you had finally broken up with her.

1. On 29 September 2023, you had played golf at the Drouin Golf Club, then went on to drink beer and watch football at your friend Brody Hoult's house for a few hours. You moved on to the Robin Hood Hotel for further drinks before returning to Mr Hoult's for pizza and more beers. By all accounts, you were "pretty pissed" that evening.
2. You sent an email at 6:47pm that night to Ms Gibson, which read_: "As much as I hate you for what you have done, would you like me to come over at all? I'm very upset and yeah whatever but if you want me to I can._" She did not respond to that email.
3. You decided to go to Ms Gibson's house anyway and at 7:42pm you knocked on her door. You are recorded by the CCTV at her front door, clearly drunk and wearing a pink hat. You drunkenly called her obscene names, were abusive and questioned "who the other man was" and whether there was anyone else at her house.
4. After a considerable period of time, she let you in to her house to talk about the state of your relationship. Ultimately, you and Ms Gibson engaged in sexual intercourse, and you ejaculated on her. You cleaned yourself up using her daughter's t-shirt, much to her displeasure. An argument ensued and you punched her to her eye. Following a struggle between you, Ms Gibson ended up on the ground.
5. You landed on top of Ms Gibson, knee first to her chest. She sustained bruising to much of her body, principally around her face and she sustained a fractured rib as a result of your assault. The conduct comprises that of charge 7, of causing injury recklessly.
6. Following this assault, you hurriedly got up and found your shorts, hat and boots. In anger, you bent one of her child's iPads in half in her bedroom, and on your way out picked up her second child's iPad, also bending it in half (charge 8 - intentionally damaging property).
7. On your way out of the property, you shouted out to the CCTV camera "why did you make me hit you?". As you walked away, you were clearly slurring your words and were unsteady on your feet.
8. You were angry because of Ms Gibson's perceived infidelity in the days leading up to that night. You subsequently claimed that Ms Gibson punched you in the face first and that you were merely acting in self-defence when you struck Ms Gibson in the face and accidentally fell on her chest.

1. Mr Ferguson, yours is a serious example of alcohol-fuelled family violence resulting in significant injuries to the victim. Your charged offending occurred in the context of your uncharged offending which typified your relationship with her. On the night of 29 September, Ms Gibson was alone and vulnerable and should have been entitled to feel safe in her own home. Turning up drunk on a woman's doorstep late at night is no way to conduct a relationship. It demonstrates complete disrespect for Ms Gibson. To add insult to injury, you broke both her children's iPads as you angrily left her house. That damage demonstrated your malice and lack of care for Ms Gibson and her children. Your subsequent offer to the children's father to pay for the damage you caused to the iPads, whilst it shows remorse for your damage to the children's iPads, shows little remorse for the harm that you had caused Ms Gibson that night.
2. Insight into your mindset may be gleamed through a text message you sent subsequently on 4 December 2023 at 10:15pm which was tendered on your plea. In my view this message does not demonstrate genuine remorse with regards to your actions towards Ms Gibson. Instead, you again prioritised your own needs. You said: "I do know I'm not meant to try and contact you but I couldn't live with myself if I didn't tell you what I need to tell you". You go on to say "I forgive you for the things that had made me angry it all stemed (sic) from things I had done and I am to blame not you."[5] Now, I am not sentencing you in relation to this subsequent message or your subsequent conduct, but it does inform my consideration and assessment of your remorse for your actions.
3. There can be no excuse for abusing and assaulting a woman. Ms Gibson does not need your forgiveness for meeting other men when you were not in an exclusive relationship with her. You had no right to attempt to control her as if she was your property.
4. Luke Ferguson, recklessly causing injury is an offence punishable by a maximum penalty of 5 years' imprisonment. Your offending is a moderate example of that offence type.
5. Intentionally damaging property is an offence punishable by a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment. Whilst your actions were malicious, the damage involved in this offending is not high, and accordingly I consider it a low-level example of this offence type.
6. However, your overall moral culpability for the offending is high.

1. Ms Gibson read her Victim Impact Statement to the Court. She describes the enduring psychological, emotional, social and financial impact your offending has had on not only her, but also upon her children. She sustained extensive bruising across her body, face, arms chest, hips and ribs which took months to heal. She endured ongoing concussion and pain for many months after this incident. She had to attend multiple medical appointments to treat her concussion and was unable to resume her passion for sport for an extended period and had to take a significant amount of time off work. She speaks about the anxiety and panic attacks she has whenever she sees your car driving around the local area and about how her children do not feel safe since the day of offending.
2. Ms Gibson has been diagnosed with conditions arising from this assault.[6] Your violence has had a significant and lasting impact upon her life.

1. I will now turn to address your personal circumstances, Mr Ferguson. You are now aged 36 years old. You are privileged to enjoy good family support. Your family and partner attended Court throughout your trial and are on the link today again to support you.
2. You have been in a committed relationship with your now fiancé, since late 2023. You have taken on the role of stepfather to her son, and you have plans to marry and grow a family with her.
3. You are self-employed as a landscaper.

1. Two character references authored by your fiancé and friend Samuel Dixon were tendered on your behalf.
2. Your fiancé spoke about the hardships you faced, particularly when the Herald Sun article was published about your offending, leading to your suspension from your cricket club. She spoke about the role you have played in building a bond with her son and your patience and persistence throughout this period.[7]
3. Mr Dixon describes that you are a respected and valued member of the Nyora Football Netball Club.[8]

1. Mr Ferguson, several matters operate to mitigate sentence in this matter:
2. Firstly, there has been some delay in the finalisation of your matter which was not attributable in any way to you. Your trial has been adjourned twice, for reasons not of your making.
3. Delay is not, in and of itself, mitigatory.  However, it is relevant that you have had this very serious matter hanging over your head for a considerable period and have used this time productively to take positive steps towards your rehabilitation. You have completed a 20-week men's behaviour change program and have completed a course in alcohol counselling. You were supported by the Court Integrated Services Program whilst on bail and are reported to have participated well with that program. Your prospects of rehabilitation are significantly enhanced by these steps and, other than breaching your intervention order by sending the text message to Ms Gibson in December 2023, you have not reoffended during the period that you have been awaiting finalisation of this matter.
4. Most significantly, you indicated a willingness to plead guilty to the charges of reckless cause injury and criminal damage at a very early opportunity prior to a contested committal.
5. Ultimately the more serious charges of which you were acquitted, proceeded to trial. You will receive a significant mitigation of your sentence on account of your early plea of guilty and I accept that your plea of guilty does indicate some expression of remorse in all the circumstances.
6. A photograph of you in your cricketing attire with the headline "Drouin Gippsland tradie and local cricketer identity Luke Ferguson pleads not guilty to rape charges in court" was published in the Herald Sun on 6 September 2024.[9] This publication resulted in your temporary suspension from playing cricket for your club and attracted negative commentary online. I accept that this publication, together with the three days you spent in custody at the Morwell Police Station are a form of extra curial punishment which I take into account on sentence.
7. You have a relevant prior criminal record from 2010, now some 15 years ago, of a matter where you received a non-conviction outcome for causing injury intentionally in the context of a pub brawl. It is reasonable to infer that alcohol most likely had a role to play in that offending. You do not have any other prior criminal history of any type, and you do not have a prior history of family violence-related offending.
8. Mr Ferguson, I encourage you to maintain abstinence from alcohol and drugs. If you can do so, you have many things going for you in your life which will reduce your risk of reoffending again in the future. You have now experienced the stress of a criminal trial and understand very clearly the harm that you have caused to the victim. These factors ought serve to starkly remind you and reinforce the need for you to make positive and respectful choices in the future, particularly in as it relates to your future consumption of alcohol and most importantly, your treatment towards women.
9. I do take into account all the matters raised on your behalf in your plea and the oral submissions made by counsel at the plea and the written material and documents tendered on your behalf.
10. In sentencing you I must have regard to a range of matters such as the seriousness of your offending, your culpability for it and your personal circumstances. I must balance the interests of the community in denouncing criminal conduct and deterring you and others from engaging in similar offending, with the interests that the community clearly has in seeking to ensure as far as possible, that offenders are rehabilitated and are reintegrated into society.[10] I must impose a sentence which is proportionate to the gravity of the offence, considering all of the circumstances. The sentence must be no more than is necessary to satisfy these various objectives of sentencing.
11. In cases of intimate partner violence general deterrence, public denunciation, just punishment and community protection are prominent sentencing considerations. The Court of Appeal in this State has repeatedly stressed that sentences for family violence offending must reflect these factors.
12. I also have regard to current sentencing practices for the offences to which you have pleaded guilty in the context of family violence offending.

1. Your counsel submits that despite the seriousness of your offending, you ought be given the opportunity to complete a Community Corrections Order (CCO), rather than being sent to jail. The Prosecution accepts that a CCO is within range in all of the circumstances.
2. The Court of Appeal in Boulton's[11] case made clear that even in cases of relatively serious offences which would previously have attracted a medium term of imprisonment, a properly conditioned CCO of a lengthy duration is capable of satisfying the requirements of proportionality, parsimony and just punishment with the offender's rehabilitation also kept in mind.
3. A CCO is intrinsically punitive and, depending on the length of the order and the conditions imposed, can be highly punitive.
4. Given that you have already completed the types of programs which would ordinarily be ordered as part of a CCO, and that Corrections assess you to have a low risk of general re-offending, they recommend that the only condition of the order be that you perform unpaid community work.[12]
5. I am satisfied that an appropriately constructed CCO which also includes supervision for the first 12 months is capable of simultaneously achieving all of the sentencing objectives in your case.

1. Mr Ferguson, I sentence you as follows:
2. On charges 7 (recklessly causing injury) and on charge 8 (intentionally destroying property) you are convicted and sentenced to a Community Corrections Order which will commence today and last for a period of 3 years.
3. The conditions of this order are:

(a) You must attend at Warragul Community Corrections Service within 2 clear working days of this order commencing;

(b) You must undergo supervision with a Corrections Officer for a period of 12 months;

(c) You are required to perform 300 hours of unpaid community work as directed, over that 3-year period;

(d) You must not commit an offence punishable by imprisonment during this order;

(e) You must not leave Victoria without permission from Community Corrections;

(f) You must let Community Corrections know within 2 clear days if you change where you are living or change jobs;

(g) You must comply with any lawful direction given to you by a Community Corrections Officer that is necessary to ensure you comply with this order; and

(h) If you contravene this order either by committing further offences, or by failing to comply with these conditions then you can be brought back before the Court, fined and resentenced. That might mean that you will go to jail for these offences.

1. Mr Ferguson, do you have any questions about this order?

1. You have indicated your oral consent to this order, which I direct to be entered onto the court record.
2. Pursuant to section 6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991,[13] I indicate that had you pleaded not guilty and been found guilty after trial on these charges, and I am not having regard to the charges for which you were acquitted, I would have sentenced you to a term of 18 months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of 12 months.

[1] Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), s 18.

[2] Ibid, s 197(1).

[3] Criminal History of Luke Ferguson dated 24 February 2025.

[5] Text message sent by Luke Ferguson to Ellie Gibson, dated 4 December 2023.

[6] Dr Erin Dolan Clinical Psychologist, RE: Ellie Gibson, dated 2 December 2025.

[7] Character Reference authored by Aleisha Morphett, dated 5 November 2025.

[8] Character Reference authored by Samuel Dixon, undated.

[9] Paul Shapiro, 'Drouin Gippsland tradie and local cricketer identity Luke Ferguson pleads not guilty to rape charges in court', Herald Sun (online, 6 September 2024).

[10] In accordance with the purposes set out in Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), s 5.

[11] Boulton v The Queen [2014] VSCA 342.

[12] Community Corrections Order Assessment Outcome Report, RE: Luke Ferguson, dated 7 November 2025.

[13] Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), s 6AAA.