DPP v Shepherd

1. First, I must outline the circumstances of your offending in more detail. This summary is derived entirely from the evidence given in the trial and represents the facts I have found consistent with the jury verdicts. To the extent there are matters that aggravate your conduct I am satisfied of those matters beyond reasonable doubt.
2. The first incident occurred in early 2006, when Lisa was five or six years old. At that time you were working as a taxi driver and often worked late and slept during the day. While you were asleep in your bedroom one morning, Lisa's mother asked her to go into the room and get a dummy off the bedside table for her younger brother. When she entered the bedroom you lifted the blanket and said, 'come give dad a cuddle'. Lisa got into bed with you and you lent over and unbuttoned her jeans. You then rubbed her vagina on the outside of her underwear before putting your hand inside her underwear and inserting your fingers into her vagina and moving them in and out. Whilst you were doing this Lisa heard you moan and grind your teeth. This conduct is charge 1 on the first indictment - Incest.
3. Lisa knew what you had done was wrong and told her mother about it immediately. The next day you apologised to Lisa telling her that what you did was wrong and it would never happen again.
4. In the following years you continued to behave inappropriately towards Lisa by brushing the outside of her vagina, grabbing her on the breasts, flicking her bra straps, smacking her on the buttocks, grabbing her thigh and making comments about her developing body. This behaviour continued until Lisa got her first boyfriend at age 16. This evidence was led as context and/or tendency in the trial.
5. The final two offences occurred in December 2017 when Lisa was 17 years old. Lisa and her boyfriend were sleeping in the loungeroom of your home when you summoned Lisa into your bedroom by either calling or texting her. Lisa assumed you wanted her to tend to what was known as your 'spew bucket' or 'do a face washer' as was the normal routine when you were drinking, however when she approached you, you pulled her by her hair into bed with you. You then grabbed her breasts forcefully with one hand and with the other hand roughly inserted your fingers into her vagina. The ordeal lasted approximately 10-15 minutes. You were grinding your teeth and grunting and moaning throughout and at one point you said the word 'mine'. When you were finished, you patted Lisa on the bottom as if to dismiss her. The grabbing of her breasts is charge 2 on the second indictment - sexual assault of a child aged 16 or 17 under care, supervision or authority and the insertion of your finger into her vagina is charge 3 on the second indictment - sexual penetration of child or lineal descendant.

1. Your personal circumstances were outlined in defence submissions, and the Psychological Assessment Report of Gina Cidoni dated 6 November 2025. Ms Cidoni had two telehealth conferences with you in October for a total of three hours and administered various tests.
2. You were born in Bendigo in 1981 and raised in regional Victoria. You told Ms Cidoni that your father was an alcoholic who was violent when intoxicated. You said your relationship with your mother was relatively stable. You left home when you were 16 due to violence perpetrated by your father against you and your mother. You have two younger brothers, now aged 39 and 41, but are not in contact with them.
3. You attended school until Year 11, when you met the victim's mother, Teri,[3] and she became pregnant.
4. You began an electronics technician apprenticeship when you were 20 but did not complete it. You worked intermittently as a taxi driver for nine years and intermittently as a truck driver after that. You also managed a retail store which, amongst other things, sold cannabis, for two years. You lost your licence after testing positive to cannabis in 2022 and it seems you have not worked since then.
5. You and Teri went on to have a total of four children before separating after 16 years in 2016 when you were in your mid-30s. You had several relationships after this, including, for the last several years with a woman name Bonnie.[4]
6. In 2017 your parents moved into your home in Ballarat and you assumed fulltime care of them. At some point Bonnie also moved in with you. Your father died in 2020, and your mother died in October this year.
7. You told Ms Cidoni that Bonnie sustained a brain injury in 2022 after attempting to jump from your car whilst you were driving to Melbourne. You also told Ms Cidoni that after that incident and up until your remand on this matter you were Bonnie's full-time carer and that she was socially and financially dependent on you.
8. Subsequent to the plea the prosecution provided a formal statement from Bonnie dated 12 December 2025 in which she denied that you were her carer. She said that you and her were no longer together and that she did not require any assistance from [you] as she was very capable of looking after herself. Given that letter, Mr Danos accepted that his submission on the plea that your time in prison would be harder for you, because of your concern about Bonnie, fell away.
9. You started drinking alcohol in your mid-teens and drank regularly as an adult. Your consumption increased significantly in 2016 and you were then consuming two bottles of Scotch per day. You told Ms Cidoni that you had alcohol-related blackouts, collapses and seizure like episodes during periods of heavy drinking.
10. You completed two inpatient detox programs, the last in 2020, and say you stopped drinking entirely after Bonnie sustained her acquired brain injury.
11. You started using cannabis when you were 22 and became dependent on synthetic cannabis in 2014 whilst working in that retail shop. You did a seven-day detox program in that same year and have not relapsed. You denied using other illicit drugs.
12. Your current health concerns relate to chronic pain from a back injury you sustained whilst driving trucks when you were 27 years old, hypertension and residual effects of past alcohol use.
13. You were apparently diagnosed with ADHD when you were 13 years old and in 2016 when you were in custody, with anxiety disorder, depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. You have a history of suicidal ideation and told Ms Cidoni that you have attempted suicide on three or four occasions. Your mental health deteriorated significantly in 2014 concurrently with your synthetic cannabis use.
14. You now take medication for post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms which helps with your mood stability and sleep regulation.
15. Ms Cidoni diagnosed you with the following conditions:
    • Paedophilic disorder - in reaching that conclusion, she relied on the fact that there were repeated sexual acts with your daughter, occurring at different stages in her development, the first when she was six years old and the last occurring when she was 17 years old. She said -

'The pattern of secrecy, grooming, and exploitation of trust indicates a sustained deviant sexual interest in a dependent child. The re-emergence of offending across two distinct developmental stages confirms chronicity. [Your] emotional detachment, denial of wrongdoing and lack of victim empathy align with cognitive distortions and defensive avoidance, commonly observed in paedophilic disorder'.

• Chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - arising from your childhood physical and sexual abuse, the latter being an incident of sexual abuse by a cousin when you were eight years old and also you witnessing multiple fatal road accidents whilst working as a driver.
• Adjustment disorder - arising from these legal proceedings and your separation from Bonnie and the stress of being in custody. She opined that your symptoms do not meet the criteria for a major depressive or generalised anxiety disorder, but they did meet the diagnosis of adjustment disorder with anxiety and depressed mood.
• Possible Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - the reason Ms Cidoni said that it was possible, or in her words 'provisional', was that her assessment relied on interview with you and screening tools, rather than a full psychological assessment, and further there was no independent corroboration of your developmental symptoms.
• Alcohol, Cannabis, including synthetic cannabis use disorders in sustained remission.

Objective gravity of your offending and moral culpability

1. I turn now to the objective gravity of your offending and your moral culpability. These matters are critical to any sentence. In simple terms how serious was your conduct and how much are you to blame.
2. Any offending involving the sexual abuse of children, let alone one's own children, is inherently serious. If there was any doubt about that the maximum penalties of 20 years' imprisonment for incest, 10 years' imprisonment for Charge 2 and 25 years' imprisonment for Charge 3 make it perfectly clear.
3. So too does the fact that Charge 3 is a category 1 offence meaning that it must be punished by a custodial order not in combination with a community corrections order.
4. You exploited the father daughter relationship for your own sexual gratification. It was a gross breach of the trust that Lisa placed in you and that society placed in you as her father. Your role as parent was to nurture and protect your children not sexually abuse them. Instead, you subjugated the welfare of Lisa to your own perverted sexual desires by offending against her. Whilst you only did this on two occasions it was not as if you behaved appropriately between them. To the contrary in the 11 years between the offending you continued to assert your sexual interest and dominion over Lisa by making sexual comments and touching her inappropriately as she was growing up. Your attitude was exemplified when you uttered the word 'mine' whilst you were penetrating Lisa's vagina knowing her boyfriend was sleeping just outside.
5. The first offence is aggravated by the fact Lisa that was so young and vulnerable, at only five or six years of age. You knew what you did was wrong and apologised to her afterwards. Your last two offences are aggravated by virtue of them being repeated offending.
6. There is nothing in your personal circumstances or psychological make up to lessens your moral culpability which I regard as high. I take into account your difficult childhood, but it does not rise to the level of profound deprivation envisaged in Bugmy.

1. There is a legal presumption that premature sexual activity causes long term and serious physical and psychological harm to children.[5] The courts recognise that rehabilitation of children who have been sexually abused may be more difficult than rehabilitation of the offender because, to quote from a case called Toomey:

'Frequently the damage will be profound and a long time will pass before it can be addressed at all. In the meantime, childhood will be destroyed, self-esteem damaged, educational and career opportunities lost and the capacity to form and maintain relationships seriously impaired'.[6]

1. It does not stretch the imagination too much to appreciate that when the perpetrator is a trusted family member the damage will be amplified.
2. Lisa's victim impact statement is a good demonstration of why that legal presumption exists. She recounts the difficulties she has had in her relationships with men, even her own brother. She suffers flashbacks from innocuous things such as her own son grinding his teeth. She is still fearful of you and when she is triggered reverts to the child that she was when you abused her. She feels guilt and shame for not being able to behave normally around those she loves. She has physical symptoms she associates with the trauma you caused her. She recounts missed educational and career opportunities because her focus was elsewhere and is worried these effects have been passed down to her children.
3. Lisa's victim impact statement eloquently expresses the effect your crimes have had on her, but to the extent it goes beyond your crimes I make it clear that I am not sentencing you for being a bad parent, just for the offences for which you have been found guilty.

1. I am required to have regard to current sentencing practices which may be gleaned from statistics or sentences imposed in other cases or both. I was not referred to any comparable cases by either counsel, but I have had regard to the Sentencing Advisory Council Statistics of the higher courts for your offences. Those statistics are of limited assistance because they do not provide any details about the cases and also include sentences imposed for cases where the applicable maximum penalty was higher or falling under the standard sentencing regime, which yours does not.

1. You had no prior convictions at the time of your first offending and one prior matter on 28 October 2016 at the time of your last two offences. That prior matter is concerning because it involves family violence and although you were sentenced to 42 days' imprisonment it did not deter you from committing the last two offences against Lisa.
2. Obviously, given you have pleaded not guilty, you have not acknowledged nor shown any remorse for your offending. According to Ms Cidoni, although paedophilic disorder is amenable to treatment,

' [Your] denial of offending and attribution of blame to external factors, represent major barriers to rehabilitation, impeding the formation of insight and precluding participation in offence specific treatment. While there is no evidence of organised predatory behaver or extra‑familial offending, the underlying sexual deviance, emotional avoidance, and lack of accountability collectively elevate [your] risk within familial and intimate context'.

'Protective elements include your age, current medication adherence and commitment to abstinence, which provide partial containment, but cannot substitute for targeted rehabilitation. Without acknowledgement of offending and participation in offence focused therapy, risk reduction is limited to indirect methods such as trauma focused psychological support, emotional regulation, and ongoing psychiatric monitoring. In sum, [your] risk of future sexual violence remains moderate to high particularly within intimate or familial contexts and will only diminish through sustained psychiatric stability, verified abstinence, and eventual participation in offence specific intervention once denial softens'.

1. Mr Danos submitted that you were unlikely to reoffend upon your release because of your sustained abstinence and removal from the family situation, however you will be well capable of forming another intimate relationship with access to children when you are ultimately released from custody on this matter.
2. Given your denial of the offending and Ms Cidoni's assessment, which I accept, I regard your prospects of rehabilitation as fair at best.

1. I take into account that you have had this matter hanging over your head since you were interviewed by the police on 26 July 2022 but given a significant part of the delay was the inevitable consequence of you contesting the charges, it is not a matter of great weight.
2. I also take into account that you have not committed any further offences since you were interviewed and to some extent seemed to have got your life in order by maintaining abstinence from alcohol.

1. I accept Ms Cidoni's opinion that prison will be harder for you because of your PTSD and anxiety than it would be for other prisoners not suffering those symptoms and I take that into account in fixing sentence.

1. I am obliged not to impose a more severe sentence than is necessary to achieve the sentencing purposes of just punishment, deterrence, rehabilitation, denunciation, and protection of the community. A custodial sentence must only be imposed as a last resort and then must be the absolute minimum required.
2. Further, when there are multiple charges, such as here, the total effective sentence must not offend the principle of totality, meaning you must not be punished any more than is proportionate and appropriate to your overall criminality.
3. In your case those general sentencing principles are qualified by the fact that given I will be imposing terms of imprisonment on Charge 1 on the first indictment and Charge 2 on the second indictment, once I come to sentence you on Charge 3 on the second indictment, you will be a serious sexual offender. That means in respect of the sentences for that charge I am required to consider protection of the community as the principal sentencing purpose and am entitled to impose a disproportionate sentence to achieve that purpose. Further, your status as a serious sexual offender gives rise to a statutory presumption of cumulation.
4. The prosecution has not submitted that a disproportionate sentence is necessary, and I am satisfied, even having regard to the fact I consider that you are a risk of reoffending, that I have enough sentencing discretion to achieve the purpose of community protection in your case without imposing one.
5. Similarly, I consider that the balancing of the presumption of cumulation and the principle of totality requires that I not order full cumulation of sentences and 'otherwise direct' to give effect to my orders.
6. The courts have repeatedly emphasised that in sentencing for sexual offences against children, general deterrence and denunciation are paramount sentencing considerations. This applies particularly to offenders like you who are entrusted with the care of their victims, whether as family members or otherwise. Anyone who is tempted to offend against children in the belief they can do so with impunity needs to know that when their crimes come to light, they will be punished severely.
7. In your case the principles of specific deterrence and community protection also have an important role to play. That is, as well as deterring others, my sentence needs to deter you from reoffending and to protect the community from you.
8. Of course, one of the best ways to protect the community is by your rehabilitation and my sentence will allow for that in the fixing of the non-parole period.

1. Weighing up the competing considerations as best I can you are convicted on each charge and sentenced to terms of imprisonment as follows:

Sexual assault of a child aged 16 or 17 under care, supervision or authority

Sexual penetration of a child or lineal descendant

Pre-Sentence detention declaration pursuant to s 18(1) of the Sentencing Act 1991:

• Pursuant to s 6F, sentenced as a Serious Sexual Offender in respect of charge 3

• Life reporting under the Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004**

1. That makes a total effective sentence of 10 years and one month. In respect of that sentence I set a non-parole period of seven years and six months. That is the earliest time at which you can be released. It is up to the Adult Parole Board whether you are released at that time.
2. I declare that you have already served 433 days of that sentence, not including today, and direct that that be entered into the records of the court and deducted administratively from the sentence I have imposed.

1. You have been found guilty of two class 1 offences and one class 2 offence, within the meaning of the Sex Offender Registration Act 2004 (Vic).
2. This means you will be required to comply with the reporting obligations under that Act for the rest of your life.
3. The Sex Offender Registration Act provides you must be given a notice setting out your reporting obligations under the Act, and what will happen if you do not comply with those obligations. The court will arrange for that notice to be sent to you in prison.
4. Mr Shepherd, do you understand the sentence I have imposed, which is 10 years one month total effective sentence, with a non-parole period of seven years six months.
5. OFFENDER: Yes.
6. HER HONOUR: Yes, thank you. Are there any matters arising?
7. MS GILLIS: No, Your Honour.
8. MR DANOS: No, Your Honour.
9. HER HONOUR: Thank you.

[5] Clarkson v The Queen [2011] VSCA 157; (2011) 32 VR 361, 368 [26], 371 [33]; Adamson v R [2015] VSCA 194, [56].

[6] DPP v Toomey [2006] VSCA 90, [22] ('Toomey').