R v Godfrey [2011] VSC 179

**2 It is to be noted that the allegations against you were relatively minor as to both time and conduct.

3 The circumstances which gave rise to you being charged with this offence were opined by Mr P. Rose SC who appeared with Mr B. Sonnett for the prosecution. The written version of the opening became Exhibit One on the plea.

4 On Wednesday 12 August 2009 at some time after midnight, John Coombes and Raechel Betts came to the house you were renting at Phillip Island. You were in bed when they arrived and did not get up to greet them.

5 Coombes had previously arranged with you to come to the house. Eventually Ms Betts went to one of the bedrooms presumably to sleep. She was joined there by Coombes. She said something which upset Coombes who then strangled her. Coombes then took the body to the bathroom and over the next 12 hours cut up the body of Ms Betts. He placed body parts and clothing into garbage bags. In the early hours of Thursday 13 August he used your car to transport the remains of Ms Betts to the Newhaven Pier where he threw the body parts into the fast moving current. He also threw the clothing and knives into the water.

6 Coombes returned to your house and used powerful bleach based cleaner to clean the bathroom. He left your house, after saying goodbye, and returned to his house in Preston.

7 On 16 August 2009 the leg of the deceased was found on the Newhaven Beach and on 3 September 2009 other body parts of the deceased were recovered on the Ventnor Beach.

8 You knew when the body parts were recovered that they were from the person Coombes had killed and dismembered at your house in the early hours of 12 August 2009. You remained silent about that but your rather callous failure to come forward even anonymously does not form part of the conduct for which I will sentence you.

9 I was informed on the plea that after these events you entered into a relationship with Coombes which may give some explanation for your conduct.

10 The conduct which is said to have been "the tendency to pervert the course of public justice" was the making of false statements to police about what Coombes had done and in providing him with a false alibi.

11 You made a statement on 29 October 2009 which produced the details of that false alibi. You told the police, who you knew were investigating the murder, that on the night Ms Betts disappeared, Coombes had fixed your broken down car near Cranbourne and then after having done so, returned to his home in Preston.

12 East Link records of Coombe's car were able to assist the police relatively quickly to show that your statement of your car breaking down at Cranbourne was false. On 2 November 2009 you were interviewed by way of a record of interview and you admitted that you had lied.

13 You told the police that over the last two to three months you had been in a relationship with Coombes as boyfriend/girlfriend. He had contacted you after Ms Betts' body had been found. You also said that you knew very little as to the circumstances of the killing of Ms Betts who you had met briefly once at Coombes' house in Preston. You did know of the dismemberment of the body in the bathroom but took no part in it.

14 You said that the "alibi" statement had been made at Coombes' urging. Coombes, you said, told you that you would be in big trouble if you said anything. You told the police you were petrified of Coombes when you made the first statement although you got along well with him both before and after the murder.

15 You made two further statements to the police on 2 November 2009 and 16 December 2009 confirming largely what had been said in the record of interview but added some more detail. The statement made on 16 December 2009 was largely to give an opportunity to comment on a statement made by Coombes.

16 You gave evidence before me in which you undertook to give evidence at the trial of John Coombes in accordance with the statements subject to some alterations which appear in the transcript.

17 In fixing the appropriate sentence in this case I have taken your undertaking into account and have fixed a less severe sentence because of it. I order that the fact that you made the undertaking and its details be entered into the records of the Court.

18 You are now 28 years of age. You are now residing with your grandmother in Queensland. You were educated in Queensland and completed a course in beauty therapy. You were then 17. Over the next three years you did various jobs before coming to Victoria, it was said on the plea 2003 but it may well be as late as 2006. Your life appears to have been rather aimless. You worked as a barmaid at Jeparit. Between 2003 and 2004, you were involved in a relationship with a man called Pollack who was abusive to you and was charged in Horsham with offences of assaulting you.

19 You later moved to Reedy Creek near Wallan where you commenced a relationship with Steven Bougijar and lived with him in Sunshine. That relationship was also unsatisfactory and you returned to Queensland mid-2008. You returned from Queensland in late 2008 and shared accommodation with friends and thought that that is when you met John Coombes.

20 Later in 2008 you moved to Phillip Island. You had one job at first but then went on to work in a clothing shop where you were employed until the time of your arrest in November 2009. You worked there on weekends and occasionally during the week. You were in charge of the shop.

21 You have said, and it was put on the plea, that you were unwell at the time of the murder of Ms Betts suffering from some bronchial complaint for which you had been prescribed antibiotics and you were taking Phenergan to assist you in sleeping.

22 Your involvement in this offence and your relationship with John Coombes remains unexplained. Why you commenced a relationship with a man whom you knew to have murdered for at least a second time is not easy to comprehend. It is because of that that I have concluded that your prospects of rehabilitation are not all that clear cut and I have some reservations about that. I am not satisfied that the full version of what you did in the time that you were living in Victoria has yet emerged but I do not intend to speculate about it. As I have already noted, you have moved back to Queensland where you live with your grandmother.

23 Mr Danos, who appeared for you on the plea, told me that you had learned your lesson and put these matters behind you. It is clear that you have the support of your family and in particular your mother and grandmother. You had started a business as a mobile nail technician but you have put that business on hold pending the result of these proceedings. That takes up the qualification which you obtained about ten or 11 years ago and that is to your credit.

24 Mr Danos told me on the plea that the time you were in prison, before getting bail, has also led you to take a different and more positive view of your future. I make it clear that you come before me to be dealt with for providing a false alibi for John Coombes. That particular charade lasted only for a few days and it was relatively easily shown to be false. Thereafter you told police what is contained in your second and third statements.

25 This offence carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 25 years. The range of offences that come under the compass of it are very wide indeed. In the way the case is put against you, you do not fall to be dealt with for your concealment of what you knew about the death of Raechel Betts.

26 I received on the plea a detailed and moving Victim Impact Statement on behalf of the extended Betts family from Sandra Diane Betts, Ms Betts' mother. It is a statement which will be perhaps more relevant to Mr Coombes if he is convicted. It does, however, eloquently set out in particular how the death of a loved one is a matter which affects the lives of those close to them on a daily basis. Insofar as you tried to protect the perpetrator, that material is relevant to you and I have had regard to such of the materials as is admissible.

27 You pleaded guilty at your committal hearing and you receive credit for that. You are relatively young. I accept that you regret what you did in supporting Mr Coombes. I must have regard to just punishment, denunciation and both general and specific deterrence. I do not regard specific deterrence as being particularly important in your case.

28 It was submitted by Mr Rose that a fully suspended sentence was within the range. Having given careful consideration to that, together with what was put on your behalf on the plea, and in particular because of the limited conduct which forms the subject of the charge before the Court, I will accede to that submission. I have decided that although a custodial sentence is appropriate in your case, in all the circumstances that sentence may be served in the community.

29 You are sentenced to be imprisoned for three years. All but 51 days of that sentence are suspended for an operational period of three years. I declare that you have served 51 days pre-sentence detention and I order that this declaration and its details be entered in the records of the Court.

30 I indicate that, had it not been for your plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to be imprisoned for three years nine months with a non parole period of two years and three months in accordance with s 6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991.

31 It should be noted that exercise is somewhat difficult in this case because you also receive a significant discount in sentence for the undertaking that you have given to give evidence against Mr Coombes and to separate those two propositions out is very difficult, but I have done the best that I can in the circumstances.

32 I further order that this indication and its details be entered in the records of the Court.**