[2025] VCC 640
General information, not legal advice.
County Court of Victoria
2025-05-22
Original judgment source is linked above.
Sentence: 167 Days Imprisonment --- 19 Month Community Correction Order
41-year-old neighbour. She too has mental health issues and there had been numerous disputes between you and her for some time. I make clear, that history of disputes does not excuse what you did on this occasion. No one is permitted to take the law into their own hands, and certainly not to do so with violence. It is only relevant to assisting in understanding why you acted the way you did. That is particularly relevant given that despite your age and your difficult past, you are a person with a very limited prior criminal history.
This offending, it is submitted, is a spontaneous, dramatic overreaction to a very difficult neighbourhood situation by a person with limited capacity to control those types of reactions because of a serious, debilitating personality disorder. The offending was clearly unplanned. The decision to carry out the offending was made in the heat of the moments after the accused heard loud bangs on the roof of her unit and concluded the victim was responsible. That the accused called Triple 0, confessed to the offending and asked for someone to check on the victim in the hours after the incident, reinforces that this was largely spontaneous offending and the product of a sudden, extreme emotional state. There is no sophistication about the offending.
... her background answers the description of 'profoundly disadvantaged'. Her story is tragic. At virtually every turn in her life, she has suffered from events largely not of her making. She was the victim of longstanding sexual abuse by her biological father. She witnessed domestic violence and was the victim herself of violence. She witnessed a horrible car accident. Her son was born very prematurely. She has a long and serious history of suicide attempts and suicidal ideation. She has a history of substance abuse from a very young age. She has experienced unstable accommodation and periods of homelessness. She has experienced social exclusion and isolation. She has had multiple psychiatric admissions and treatment with electroconvulsive therapy. [She] submits her background clearly enables the court to take Bugmy considerations into account ...'
...biological, social and psychological development of a child. Child sexual abuse can result in profound trauma, affecting the chemistry, structure and function of the developing brain and potentially interrupting normal psychosocial development at every critical stage of a child's formative years.
14-year-old son. After the premature birth of your son you suffered
post-natal depression. You felt anxious, and overwhelmed. When he was 10 months old you attempted to take your life by hanging. Prescription of opioids to manage pain again resulted in dependency. 12. When you were pregnant with your youngest child your relationship ended and you returned to Victoria. You have had no contact with your oldest two children who reside with their father. That is clearly a source of sadness for you. 13. You have managed to rekindle contact with your youngest daughter who is now about 10 and who resides with your sister. You had reached a point before this offending where you were having unsupervised weekend contact with her at your unit in Warrnambool. Unfortunately, that fact exacerbated your feelings of anxiety about where you were living. You report it was not an easy environment, with other residents involved in drug use and with the ongoing dispute with Ms Fischer being a greater source of angst when your daughter was present. 14. I have received letters from two other neighbours who have come to know you in the past two and a half years. They support your account of what was occurring at the units. One of your neighbours wisely observes that Ms Fischer was not receiving the significant help or support she needed and confirms the incidents which created disharmony. She confirms that you had previously made various requests of Ms Fischer in an appropriate manner, especially around your daughter's visits. 15. Both neighbours say to them you are a good neighbour who has become a friend and support. One, who has mobility issues, says you are a help to her. They are saddened and disapproving of what you have done but remain supportive friends who look forward to your return. They express concern about you in prison given what they know of your mental health and self-harming. One of your neighbours says it was no surprise to her that you called police on the night of this incident as you do not like to see others suffering. 16. Sadly your attendance at Emergency Departments in relation to self-harm and suicidal ideation continued throughout the time since you returned to Victoria and to the time of this offending. As I have mentioned, at one point you had sessions of electroconvulsive therapy. Looking at 2024, you made a serious attempt on your life in March 2024; you presented after injuring yourself in June 2024; in July 2024 you sustained an overdose in the context of chronic pain; in August you required treatment for abdominal wounds after self-harming with a knife. At that time you complained to the hospital about issues with your neighbours. Similar reports have been made to others prior to this offending, for example you told Professor Daffern that you had requested police help, and you told Dr Butselaar in November 2024, about a week before this offending, of your neighbourhood issues. You reported to Dr Butselaar feeling mentally scrambled in the context of your difficult living arrangements. 17. A complication in relation to your Borderline Personality Disorder is that you are often discharged after very short stays in hospital. You feel a sense of rejection by local mental health services, and that you are in the 'too hard basket'. Dr Hanratty opines that it is not uncommon for those with Borderline Personality Disorder to have short stays, given it is often considered that lengthy inpatient admissions are unhelpful for many with that condition. He says that can lead to people with Borderline Personality Disorder feeling rejected and abandoned and reacting in impulsive and dysregulated ways. 18. The immediate mental health context prior to this offending, as I have said, is that on 4 December 2024 you were admitted to hospital after self-harming by cutting. You remained there until being discharged at 9 am on the morning of 6 December. 19. Immediately after your offending against Ms Fischer you returned home to your unit, calling your mother and confessing to the assault and afterwards cutting your own neck with a razor. That wound was sutured in the Emergency Department. 20. In relation to your worrying comments made during your subsequent record of interview soon after that time, Dr Hanratty suggests you are likely to use extreme language in that way when discussing an issue which is stressful for you, in part due to the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder, including emotional dysregulation which impairs your rational thought. He opines people with BPD often experience intense shame but instead of expressing it, they may react with anger, defensiveness and blame shifting. 21. Of course, I note in fact you did call the police to request a welfare check, and made full admissions to attending police immediately and to police in your record of interview. Those markers of shame and remorse are matters I take into account.
At the time of the index offences Ms Perkins was experiencing multiple symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder, including unstable and intense interpersonal relationships, impulsivity, recurrent suicidal behaviour, affective instability, inappropriate intense anger and difficulty controlling it. These symptoms contributed to her impulsive verbal and physical assault on Ms Fischer by making her reckless, aggressive and disinhibited.
... persistent and exaggerated negative beliefs and expectations about others, a persistent negative emotional state, irritable behaviour and angry outbursts with little or no provocation, reckless and self-destructive behaviour and hypervigilance and these symptoms would have contributed to Ms Perkins's violent reaction to the noise coming from Ms Fischer's residence at the time of the index offences. These symptoms of PTSD likely exacerbated her symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder, further contributing to her extreme, violent response...
Circumstances of deprivation, abuse and other social disadvantage occurring during an offender's formative years are more than matters of historical significance to the administration of justice. The effects of such social disadvantage do not generally diminish with the passage of time, and are likely to have profound and lasting consequences.
It is the mark of a humane society that the moral judgement expressed through sentencing should take account of the lifelong damage that may result from exposure to violence or abuse or parental neglect in an offender's formative years. ... childhood trauma can permanently damage - and seriously distort - a person's view of the world around them and their understanding of social norms.
[3] R v Verdins [2007] VSCA 102; (2007) 16 VR 269
[5] Marrah v The Queen [2014] VSCA 119
[6] DPP v Drake [2019] VSCA 293 quoted in Jawahiri v The Queen [2021] VSCA 287
[7] DPP v Herrmann [2021] VSCA 160
[8] DPP v Drake [2019] VSCA 293
[9] Jawahiri v The Queen [2021] VSCA 287
[11] Bugmy v R (2013) 302 ALR 192 [at 44]
[12] Boulton v The Queen [2014] VSCA 342
DPP
Perkins
(2007) 16 VR 269
(2013) 302 ALR 192