R v S [1998] QCA 313
[1998] QCA 313
At a glance
Source factsCourt
Court of Appeal (Qld)
Decision date
1998-10-20
Before
Shepherdson J, Cullinane J, Jersey CJ
Source
Original judgment source is linked above.
Judgment (69 paragraphs)
1 The prisoner was convicted by a jury on four counts of rape and four of indecent assault with circumstances of aggravation. The learned judge imposed an indefinite sentence under s.163 of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992. As required by s.163(2), he stated, as the "nominal sentences" he would have imposed but for the indefinite sentence, fourteen years in respect of the rapes and three and four years in respect of the indecent assaults.
2 The prisoner, then thirty-three years old, committed these offences on 5 April 1997. At that time he was on parole. It is convenient to refer now, in brief terms, to his relevant past criminal history. In 1981 he was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment for the abduction and violent sexual assault of a fifty-seven year old woman: the offences were two of rape, one of sodomy, an indecent assault involving the insertion of a capped beer bottle into her vagina, and stealing. Following his being charged and granted bail in respect of those offences, and virtually immediately upon his release, he robbed a woman at knifepoint with personal violence. For that he was sentenced in the District Court to three years imprisonment (the criminal history sheet says three months, which is an error) to be served cumulatively upon the twelve year term. Then in 1988 he was sentenced to another cumulative term, of seven years, for sodomy and assault occasioning bodily harm in relation to a fellow prisoner. He was eventually released on parole and then eight months later, in 1992, was apprehended for breach of parole and returned to custody. Three years later, on returning from a period of day release, he punched someone at the prison, and that led to another month's imprisonment. He committed the immediately relevant offences in 1997, less than two months after release to home detention, and within the first week of his period of parole.