22 The fact that you have been psychosis-free since shortly after your arrest in July 2003 confirms the opinion of Dr McKenny as to the aetiology of your problem and demonstrates beyond doubt that had you not ingested illegal drugs shortly prior to committing these offences they would not have occurred and, in particular, Mr Turner would still be alive.
23 I have referred to your history as extensively as I have because your counsel submitted that you should be sentenced on the basis that you were suffering from a serious psychiatric condition at the time you committed these offences and that accordingly your sentence should be sensibly moderated as principles of general deterrence would have less application in your case than they might in others. [1] He said the fact that you were psychotic at the time you committed these offences lowered your moral culpability. This submission cannot be accepted. Whilst you were undoubtedly psychotic at the time you committed these offences that psychosis was induced by your voluntary ingestion of illegal drugs. Further, as the evidence of Dr McKenny demonstrates, you were well aware that your behaviour in taking those drugs exposed you to a risk of becoming psychotic such that you would be a danger to yourself or others. Your conduct was not only predictable but was, in effect, predicted by those treating you in Adelaide two or more years before these events occurred. Your failure to heed the warnings given to you so that you persisted in illegal drug taking, was a direct cause of your committing these offences. As such, the effect of that drug-taking namely your psychosis cannot be relied upon by you as a factor which ought to mitigate your punishment. Rather, in the circumstances of this case, the fact that you voluntarily took illegal drugs such that they caused you to become dangerously psychotic in circumstances where you knew or ought to have known that that was a likely result is an aggravating factor.[2] The principle which might permit the mitigation of condign punishment because of serious psychiatric illness at the time of the commission of an offence depends upon that illness being beyond the control of the person being sentenced. Here, the psychosis from which you suffered was induced by your own illegal act. Thus the principle contended for by your counsel has no application. Your moral culpability for the consequences of your actions is not lowered by reason of your having been psychotic at the time you performed them.
24 Your counsel has pointed out that you offered to plead guilty to manslaughter in respect of Mr Turner's death in November last year but that the Crown declined this offer. However, you conceded a manslaughter verdict on your trial and did not dispute the Crown evidence with respect to the way in which you drove the truck such that you killed Mr Turner and placed a number of other citizens in fear of their lives. The manslaughter concerned involved an unlawful and dangerous act. These matters will be taken into account in fixing the sentence for each of the offences of which you have been found guilty.
25 You have had a large number of appearances before South Australian courts since your first appearance in February 1989. They relate to driving offences, drug offences, public order offences and some relatively minor offences of violence. The dispositions in each case were relatively benign. They pale into insignificance when viewed against those offences for which you are now to be sentenced such that their only relevance now is that you are unable to rely upon an unblemished past record as a mitigating factor for sentencing purposes.
26 Your counsel has pointed to the fact that drug testing undertaken whilst you have been in prison suggests that you have desisted from any drug use in that environment. He submits that this together with your having undertaken some self awareness programmes in prison are significant pointers towards your capacity for rehabilitation which ought to be taken into account. They will be given such weight as is appropriate in the sentencing process.
27 Your counsel also relies upon the fact that for some of the period you have been in gaol, you have been confined to a protection unit for your own safety. You may be so confined in the future. This situation, which arises from circumstances which are irrelevant to this case, may mean that your time in prison will be more onerous than it might have been had you been able to serve your sentence wholly in a mainstream situation. This too will be taken into account in fixing an appropriate sentence.
28 A number of the psychiatrists who have assessed you for the purposes of this case have commented on your apparent remorse for what you have done and, in particular, for having been the cause of Mr Turner's death. Their evidence was not contested by the Crown and accordingly the fact that you are remorseful enures to your benefit both because it demonstrates at least some contrition for the crimes you have committed and it also points towards the possibility of rehabilitation.
29 Victim impact statements have been filed by Mr Turner's sister who, it might be noted, has attended every day or almost every day of the hearing of this proceeding. She attests to the loss she, and the rest of her family feels as a result of her brother's death. He was clearly much loved and his loss is a devastating blow to his family from which it will never recover. His sister described him as a man who spent his spare time doing work for the St Vincent de Paul Society. The Turner family's loss is the community's loss as well.
30 Two of those whose lives you endangered have also filed victim impact statements. They attest to the trauma your criminal behaviour caused them. The relevant and admissible parts of those statements have been taken into account in fixing your sentence.
31 The Court must consider questions of general and special deterrence, punishment, the protection of the community, the need to denounce conduct such as you have engaged in and your rehabilitation, if that is possible, in fixing appropriate sentences.
32 You must be sentenced in respect of each of the crimes of which you have been found guilty and those sentences calculated so as to determine a total effective sentence. In reaching the total effective sentence it is appropriate in this case, contrary to your counsel's primary submission, that there be some cumulation of those sentences imposed in respect of the conduct endangering life with the sentence for Mr Turner's manslaughter. That cumulation will, however, take into account that the whole episode was, in reality, part of one criminal escapade. It is not necessary, in the circumstances, that the sentence to be imposed in respect of stealing the truck be cumulated in the same way and accordingly that sentence will be concurrent with the sentence for manslaughter.
33 It is also the duty of the Court generally to fix a minimum term of imprisonment which you must serve before being eligible for parole. Every day of that term must be served in prison. However, having regard to the particular circumstance of your susceptibility to dangerous psychosis induced by the ingestion of drugs, it is appropriate, both for the better protection of the community and for your possible rehabilitation, to permit the possibility of a longer period of supervision after your release than might normally be the case. It is essential that every possible step be taken to ensure that you never get into the situation which led to the commission of those crimes again.
34 It is the sentence of the Court that on Count 1, the manslaughter of Raymond John Turner, you be imprisoned for 12 years; on Count 6, reckless conduct endangering the life of Ian Raymond Gloster, you be imprisoned for two years; on Count 9, reckless conduct endangering the life of Mark Andrew Webster, you be imprisoned for two years; on Count 10, reckless conduct endangering the life of Greg Strawhorn, you be imprisoned for two years; Count 11, reckless conduct endangering the life of Carissa Foster, you be imprisoned for two years; and Count 13, the theft of the Nissan tip-truck, you be imprisoned for one year.
35 It is further ordered that six months of each of the terms of imprisonment imposed in respect of Count 6, 9, 10 and 11, be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed in respect of Count one, thus making a total effective sentence of 14 years' imprisonment. It is further ordered that you serve a minimum of 10 years before being eligible for parole.
36 I declare that a period of 897 days has already been served in respect of this sentence and direct that this declaration and its effect be entered in the records of the Court.