DPP v Nguyen [2008] VSC 11

Supreme Court of Victoria|2008-02-08|Before: Teague J

Criminal Law - Sentencing - Murder - Two victims chopped and stabbed to death in front of four young children - Pleas of guilty - Head sentence of 25 years - Non-parole of 20 years.

1 Tuan Dang Nguyen, you have pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and to one count of theft of a motor vehicle arising out of events that occurred on 1 April 2001 at Robinvale. On that day, you stabbed and chopped to death two women. One was Ba Nguyen, then aged 50. The other was Khanh Le, then aged 26. The two murders have had a devastating effect on people close to the two women.

2 I refer most specifically to Vu Do and his two daughters Vivian and Valarie. Ba Nguyen was the mother of Vu Do, and thus the grandmother of Vivian and Valarie. Khanh Le was the then girl-friend of Vu Do. The two women were attacked by you in the home in which they were living in Robinvale with Vu Do. The two murders were carried out by you in the presence of four children, all aged under seven. Vivian and Valerie were two of that four. They were, on 1 April 2001, aged 6 and 4 respectively. Ba Nguyen was acting as baby sitter as to them and as to the other two children, who were boys, not then two years of age.

3 Ba Nguyen and Vu Do ran a business organising grape-pickers for growers in the Robinvale area. You were one of those grape-pickers. You were an illegal immigrant, for whom getting a job was a problem. Grape-picking was one of the jobs available. The opportunity to work was what took you, as it had taken Khanh Le much earlier, to Robinvale.

4 On the morning of 1 April 2001, Vu Do left the Robinvale house to transport pickers to local farms. Ba Nguyen remained there with Khanh Le, Vivian, Valarie and the two little boys. Just before 10 a.m., Ba Nguyen was preparing to leave the house to get some exercise. You knocked on the front door of the house. The door was opened by Vivian. You asked for Vu Do. Ba Nguyen came to the door. She told you that Vu Do was at work. She asked you to come in. She went to the kitchen, and you followed her. You asked her for a pen and paper. These she provided, and you made use of them. Ba Nguyen told you she was going for a run. She walked towards the back door. It was then that you took hold of and made the first use of your weapon. The weapon that you used has not been located. It may have been a large knife, a cleaver or a machete. It was sharp and large enough to sever altogether the hand of Ba Nguyen. You wielded it in brutal fashion and in front of the four young children. You inflicted severe chopping injuries to the head of Ba Nguyen. In the process of doing that, you chopped off her left hand. You inflicted a stab wound to the abdomen causing a major injury to her liver and heart.

5 You told the children to be quiet or you would hurt them. You washed the weapon in the kitchen sink. You then walked to the bedroom where Khanh Le was located. She came out of the bedroom, screaming. You followed her out. You were striking at Khanh Le with your weapon as she backed towards the bathroom. You continued to strike her until she too was dead. She died from blood loss resulting from many chopped and stabbed wounds to her head, chest and abdomen. After this sustained savagery in the hearing, if not all in the sight, of the four children, you required the four to move into another room. They remained in that room until released by the police some hours later.

6 After effectively imprisoning the four children, you conducted an extensive search of the house. You removed items of potential value. The items included cash, a handbag, and a bank credit card. You then fled the scene of the murders. You stole the van of Khanh Le from outside the house. You drove the van to Swan Hill. You engaged taxis to get you first to Bendigo and then to Melbourne. You made withdrawals using the credit card. You then moved back into the world of illegal immigrants. It was only in April 2006, that some smart police work, linked to a perceptive young woman, resulted in your being tracked down and arrested in Sydney.

7 Your moral culpability for brutally executing two defenceless women in their own home is substantial. It is the more substantial because you executed the two women in front of four young children. There is not enough evidence for me to be satisfied that the killing of the two women was pre-planned. I sentence you therefore on the basis that the killings were done on the spur of the moment.

8 I have read the five victim impact statements placed before the court. Three come from members of the Do family: Vu, Vivian, and Valarie. I have reflected on them in conjunction with the statements prepared by all three as part of the prosecution case. One of the other two victim impact statements comes from Le Kim Anh, the sister of Khanh Le. The other comes from Anne Lam, the mother of Vivian and Valarie. The nightmares and other emotional consequences of the two murders, to say nothing of the financial, social and other adverse consequences, have been devastating.

9 I turn to your background. You are now 37 years of age. You were born in May 1970 in Vietnam, the sixth of eight children. You suffered many adverse consequences because of your being caught up both in the war in that country, and in the aftermath of the war. Your family life and your education were gravely interrupted and impaired. You eventually became a flight attendant with Vietnam Airlines. In that position you came to Australia. In October 1998, you chose not to board the aircraft scheduled to fly you back to Vietnam. You chose instead to remain in Australia as an illegal immigrant. Before and after the events in Robinvale, you maintained a low profile. You did come to the notice of immigration authorities in 2003. As a result, you spent 9 months in the Villawood Detention Centre. Your release from the Centre in 2004 appears to have been achieved through the use of the birth records of another man. The state of your mental health needed investigation following your arrest in 2006. It now appears that the position is stable, and does not require further investigation

10 You are entitled to a substantial discount for having pleaded guilty. Apart from other utilitarian benefits, your pleas serve as an indication of remorse, and as a means of avoiding the ordeal for Vivian and Valarie of having to be questioned twice over as to what they saw and heard back in April 2001. There are other mitigating considerations for which I must allow. You have no prior convictions. Given the minimal family support available, prison will be harder for you.

11 I must and do declare you to be a serious violent offender. While I must take that into account, I do not propose to impose a disproportionately longer sentence. I have signed the orders for sample detention and for disposal of certain items, as sought and not opposed on the plea. I declare the number of days of pre-sentence detention to be 666 as at today.

12 On each of the two counts of murder, I impose a sentence of a term of imprisonment of 19 years. I direct that 6 of the 19 years imposed on count 2, be served cumulatively on the 19 years imposed on count 1. On the theft count, I impose a sentence of 1 month, to be served concurrently with the 19 years imposed on count 1. As required, I impose a driving licence disqualification period of 2 years, operative forthwith. The effective term of the sentences of imprisonment imposed by me is 25 years. I fix a non-parole term of 20 years.

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