DPP v Thompson [2026] VCC 281

1. The prosecution filed a Summary of Prosecution Opening which is an agreed statement of the facts and circumstances of your offending which briefly stated are as follows.
2. On 20 March 2025 at approximately 8:22 pm police attended a vehicle parked on a nature strip at an address in Lynbrook. You were inside the vehicle in an intoxicated state, slumped forward. Your vehicle engine was running, and the hazard lights were activated, and the brake-lights were illuminated.
3. You woke up. Police directed you to turn off your engine and exit. You refused and police attempted to forcibly remove you. There was a tussle and capsicum spray was sprayed in your face. You then put your vehicle in transmission and drove off. (Summary Charge 10).
4. You travelled north on the South Gippsland Highway. You were driving erratically with your hazard lights activated. Police pursued you with their emergency red and blue lights flashing and sirens going. You refused to pull over. Police lost sight of you.
5. The Air Wing helicopter was deployed. You were sighted at the intersection of Thompson Road and Lyndhurst Boulevard in Lyndhurst. You drove through a red light and collided with a vehicle driven by Kylie Ellis with her eight-year-old daughter in the rear seat. (Charge 4).
6. You ran away but were detained by a civilian who handed you over to police.
7. The car you were driving was stolen and was listed as stolen on 25 August 2024. It also bore false registration plates. (Charge 3 and Summary Charge 7)
8. Police located 33.4 grams of methylamphetamine and 27.9 kilos of 1,4-Butaendiol in the vehicle (Charge 2 and 1) as well as a taser (Summary Charge 4).
9. You were conveyed to the Cranbourne police station where an oral fluid test and later analysis confirmed the presence of methylamphetamine in your system. (summary Charge 9)
10. You were interviewed by the police and made admissions to all charges save that you denied any knowledge of the drugs seized and the taser.
11. No victim impact statements have been tendered but this must have been a terrifying experience for Ms Ellis and her daughter. You have pleaded guilty to serious charges and face a significant term of imprisonment, but you are fortunate that you are not responsible for the death of a mother and her eight-year-old daughter. Your behaviour was appalling. You were drug affected. You refused to co-operate with police when they approached your vehicle. You drove off at speed and then through a red light. You were driving a stolen vehicle and were unlicenced which further aggravates your conduct on Charge 4. I regard Charge 4 as an objectively very serious example of conduct endangering life and your moral culpability as high.
12. You face two charges of possession of a drug of dependence. In respect of both charges, you were in possession of a very large amount of the relevant drug.

1. Turning to your personal circumstances.
2. You were born in August 1983. You are presently 42.
3. Your background is set out in the report of Alison Mynard, clinical psychologist, dated 28 December 2025 which was tendered at your plea.
4. You told Ms Mynard that as a child you witnessed severe and repeated domestic violence perpetrated by your father on your mother. Your parents separated. Your father went to live in New South Wales. You had contact with him but on one occasion he failed to return you to your mother, who was forced to travel to New South Wales to retrieve you. Thereafter you had no contact with your father until you met him again when you were both in gaol.
5. After separating from your father, your mother had few resources and was a distant parent. You report having been sexually abused on two occasions during your childhood.
6. You attended school until Year 10. You had multiple changes of school and your studies and friendships were constantly disrupted. You told Ms Mynard you performed well in school in English and mathematics and that you did not have learning difficulties or behavioural difficulties.
7. You undertook a plumbing apprenticeship after you left school, which you did not complete, but you later completed an apprenticeship. You later worked in landscape gardening, construction and telecommunications and infrastructure.
8. You started abusing drugs at about the age of 18. You have been a polysubstance abuser, using at various times cannabis, ice, ecstasy and alcohol. You told Ms Mynard you used drugs to self-medicate and cope with childhood trauma. You also reported that your former partner and fiancé made multiple suicide attempts, and you felt a constant pressure to monitor her safety. This was approximately 10 years ago.
9. You told Ms Mynard your significant intimate relationships had been with fellow drug users.
10. You have one child.
11. Ms Mynard gives the opinion based on your history, trauma exposure and current symptom presentation that your clinical profile is consistent with Complex Post‑Traumatic Stress Disorder.
12. She further opines that your offending occurred in the context of trauma-driven distress and maladaptive self-medication rather than calculated criminal intent. She opines your complex PTSD would have significantly compromised your emotional regulation, impulse control and decision-making capacity.
13. She further gives the opinion that imprisonment would likely be more onerous for you than a prisoner without your psychiatric history and that prolonged incarceration without adequate trauma-informed treatment risks worsening your mental health and undermining rehabilitation.
14. You have a relevant criminal history with prior convictions for possession and trafficking drugs of dependence, including trafficking 1,4-Butanediol and trafficking GHB, multiple convictions for driving while suspended and unlicensed driving, and you have a prior conviction for failing an oral fluid test withing three hours of driving. You also have multiple prior convictions for dishonesty offences and violent offending. You have been placed on community correction orders which you have invariably breached. You were placed on a drug treatment order in 2018 which you breached by further offending including the possession of drugs of dependence. You have been to prison but on my reading of your criminal record, your hitherto longest sentence was 109 days.

1. Turning now to the matters raised in mitigation and my conclusions on these topics.
2. First, you pleaded guilty and your plea is an early one. Your plea saves the community the cost of a trial and the witnesses the trauma of giving evidence. I also accept that your plea is indicative of remorse. I accept the submission of your counsel, Ms McLure that you have reflected upon what could have been the tragic consequences of your offending. You also wrote a letter to the Court expressing your remorse. You are entitled to an appropriate mitigatory discount by virtue of your plea.
3. Secondly, Ms McLure based on Ms Mynard's report relied on Verdins[8] limbs 1,3, 4, and 5.
4. My conclusions on this topic are as follows. In the first place I am not satisfied that Ms Mynard's report substantiates a diagnosis of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. She only goes as far as to say that you have a clinical profile consistent with that disorder. Having said that I accept that you have experienced a number of traumatic events from your childhood and into your adult life which have affected your mental health and that you use drugs to cope and self-medicate.
5. Given that your drug use is connected with your poor mental health and is referable to your childhood and formative years, I am prepared to moderate your moral culpability to a modest extent.
6. I reject the submission that the principles of specific and general deterrence should be moderated in your case. You have a longstanding relevant criminal history and have been afforded multiple opportunities to address your drug use. I accept the prosecution submission that your offending is escalating. The sentence I impose must send the message to you that you need to stop and you must never behave this way again.

1. General deterrence and denunciation are at the forefront of the sentencing exercise. Driving drug-affected is extremely dangerous behaviour and the cause of so much death and despair in the community. People who drive drug-affected must expect to receive significant terms of imprisonment. The principle of community protection is also engaged in sentencing you. The sentence I impose must endeavour to protect the community against your behaviour.
2. I do accept there is some modest application of Verdins limb 5 in that prison will be more difficult for you than someone without your psychiatric history.
3. You are doing as well as you can in custody. You are engaging in education and employment opportunities.
4. I can only assess your prospects of rehabilitation as guarded given your criminal history, and your failure to complete court ordered programs aimed at treating your drug use.
5. You have committed a number of serious offences. I am mindful of the principle of totality but there will need to be appropriate orders for cumulation.
6. Taking into account all the matters I am required to under the Sentencing Act 1991[9] and matters personal to you, I intend to sentence you as follows.

1. You are convicted on all charges indictable and summary.
2. On Charge 1 you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.
3. On Charge 2 you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.
4. On Charge 3 you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment
5. On Charge 4 you are sentenced to three years and six months' imprisonment.
6. On Summary Charge 4 you are sentenced to two months' imprisonment.
7. On Summary Charge 7 you are sentenced to one month imprisonment.
8. On summary Charge 9 you are sentence to six months' imprisonment.
9. On summary Charge 10 you are sentenced to three months' imprisonment.
10. Charge 4 is the base charge.
11. I direct that four months of Charges 1, 2 and 3, one month of summary Charge 4 and one month of summary Charge 9 be served cumulatively upon Charge 4 and upon each other.
12. That makes a total effective sentence of four years and eight months' imprisonment. I direct you serve a non-parole period of three years and three months.
13. Pursuant to s 18 (4) of the Sentencing Act[10] you have served 355 days of presentence detention.
14. Pursuant to s 6AAA of the Sentencing Act[11] but for your plea of guilty I would have sentence you to six years and eight months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of five years.
15. On Charge 4 I disqualify your licence for two years.
16. On summary Charge 9 I disqualify you from driving for 12 months.
17. I direct that the disqualification period on summary Charge 9 be served concurrently with the disqualification period on Charge 4. So that is a total disqualification period of two years which commences today.
18. I make the forfeiture orders sought by the prosecution.

[1] Drugs, Poisons And Controlled Substances Act 1981 (Vic) s 73(1).

[2] Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) s 74.

[3] Ibid s 22.

[4] Control of Weapons Act 1990 (Vic) s 5AA.

[5] Road Safety Act 1986 (Vic) s 72.

[6] Ibid s 49(1)(h).

[7] Note 5 s 18(1)(a).

[8] R v Verdins (2007) 16 VR 269 ('Verdins').

[9] (Vic) s 5.

[10] Ibid s 18(4).

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