6 The prisoner's criminal history contains some offences of possessing or using a prohibited drug, an offence of assault for which he was sentenced in 1985, an offence of stealing and an offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in 1999. For most of the offences the only penalty imposed was a fine and for none of the offences was the prisoner sentenced to imprisonment. The prisoner's criminal history prevents a finding in his favour of previous good character but is otherwise not relevant to sentencing him for the present offence.
7 The prisoner's custodial history contains an entry that in April 2008 the prisoner failed to pass a urine test but an explanation for this failure was advanced which did not involve the use by the prisoner of a prohibited drug and I am prepared to accept the explanation. The prisoner's custodial history has otherwise been unremarkable.
8 The victim impact statement describes the loss from the death of the deceased suffered by the victim's sister, the victim's sister's children and the victim's own daughter who was only six years old at the time of her mother death.
9 Some of the subjective circumstances of the prisoner are described in the statement of agreed facts and some can be extracted from Dr Westmore's reports and Mr Champion's report.
10 In par 4 of his report dated 8 September 2008 Mr Champion said:-
"Steven Wicks is a 48 year old single man, living alone in a garage at the home of his parents at the time of the alleged offence. He was apparently in receipt of disability benefits as a result, he indicated, of long-term drug addiction and anxiety. He indicated that he has not worked since he was about 30 years of age. He gives a history of long-term substance abuse with addiction/dependency".
11 Elsewhere in the report Mr Champion recorded that the prisoner had obtained a Higher School Certificate and had gained entry to a degree course in engineering at the University of New South Wales. However, he had not completed the first year of the course. He subsequently obtained a traineeship with the Defence Department and gained a qualification as a technical officer in electronics. He was in employment for a period of about 12 years.
12 As I noted earlier, three reports by Dr Westmore forensic psychiatrist were admitted into evidence in the proceedings on sentence.
13 Dr Westmore's first report dated 15 February 2008 was based on a clinical interview of the prisoner on 13 February 2008, when the prisoner had already been in custody for about a year. The prisoner told Dr Westmore that he was pleading not guilty to the charge of murder on the grounds of self-defence and he gave an account of the confrontation between himself and the deceased according to which the deceased had succeeded in taking the knife from the prisoner and the prisoner had been in fear that the deceased would stab him with the knife.
14 Under the heading "Drug and alcohol history" Dr Westmore recorded that the prisoner said that he had been an alcoholic for about two years, consuming a large bottle of sherry each day; that he had started using cannabis at the age of 15 years and heroin at the age of 17 years, although he had ceased using heroine; that he had been on methadone for more than 20 years; and that he had been using prescription drugs for as long as he could remember.
15 Under the heading "Psychiatric diagnostic issues" Dr Westmore stated:-
"Substance abuse (cannabis and heroin)
Prescription medication abuse (minor tranquilisers)
Alcohol abuse
Probable mood disorder with symptoms of anxiety and depression
………..
He has hepatitis related liver problems, hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia
………..
This man's general level of functioning appears to have declined over the last few years. He was socially isolated, unemployed and he was abusing medication, cannabis and alcohol".
16 In this first report Dr Westmore expressed the opinion that the prisoner was fit to be tried and did not have a psychiatric defence to the charge of murder.
17 Dr Westmore's second report dated 8 October 2008 was based on a clinical interview on 3 October 2008, that is after the prisoner's attempt at suicide.
18 The prisoner explained to Dr Westmore that he had attempted to commit suicide, "after I received the autopsy report (which he had never seen before) and there was just a whole lot of injuries (to the victim) I couldn't account for". The prisoner told Dr Westmore that he was dumbfounded by the autopsy report, that he could not remember inflicting on the deceased the injuries described in the autopsy report and that he felt remorseful and guilty about what had occurred.
19 In his second report Dr Westmore expressed the opinion that "if his drug problem is treated, then his risks of re-offending in such a serious way again are very likely to be negligible to non-existent".
20 In Dr Westmore's opinion, the diagnoses he had made in his earlier report remained valid. As to the attempted suicide Dr Westmore said:-
"Mr Wicks has in the context of acute stress engaged in what I understand was a serious act of self-harm. He said the thoughts about harming himself occurred a few days prior to the incident although he had had some thoughts of a similar type previously since being placed into custody. The precipitant for his actions appears to have been his reading of the autopsy report and him coming to the view that he would need to change his plea from not guilty on the basis of self-defence to guilty to the charge of murder.
The magnitude of all of that appears to have overwhelmed him.
He has since been placed into a secure cell into the Acute Care Unit of Long Bay Prison. He has been treated with an anti-depressant and he is seeing a psychologist, presumably on a regular basis".
21 Dr Westmore's third report dated 19 January 2009 was based on a clinical interview on 14 January 2009, that is after the prisoner had pleaded guilty to the charge of murder. Dr Westmore had been asked to provide an opinion as to whether at the time of the commission of the offence there were any psychiatric or psychological mitigating factors.
22 Dr Westmore recorded in his report that he had been told by the prisoner that after 8 o'clock in the evening of 5 February 2007 the prisoner had consumed two-thirds of a bottle of sherry, had taken 7 or 8 temazepam tablets and was smoking cannabis.
23 In this third report Dr Westmore stated that the diagnoses made in his original report remained valid. Dr Westmore expressed the opinion that:-
"It is likely at the time of the commission of the offence Mr Wicks was affected by drugs and alcohol. He denies, but cannot really remember, whether he was paranoid on the night of the incident. His explanation as to why he and the deceased argued does not appear to be psychotically based … Mr Wicks also thought he may have been depressed at the time of the incident and certainly his drug and alcohol abuse is likely to have effected his mood adversely.
………….
Generally Mr Wicks presents as a subdued, sad, sombre and possibly depressed man".
24 I will now quote or summarise parts of Mr Champion's report.
25 On an intelligence test administered by Mr Champion the prisoner achieved a score in the superior range. Mr Champion considered that the prisoner had a longstanding history of generalised/social anxiety and that the "overall impression is of a socially withdrawn and blunted personality".
26 In par 23 of his report Mr Champion said:-
"In sum Mr Wicks is a man of significant intelligence who presents with a longstanding history of polysubstance abuse with addiction/dependency. He gives a history of anxiety problems and has chosen to live a somewhat isolated life on his own, having in many ways withdrawn from the world. I would not be surprised to find that there is an underlying tendency to mood disorder. There are no obvious indications for formal psychiatric treatment, unless for instance his mood issues worsen. He might benefit from some CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) type treatment if this were available to him."
27 The prisoner told Mr Champion that, apart from the sherry the prisoner had drunk in the evening of 5 February 2007, he had earlier that day drunk a number of small bottles of beer, had taken a dose of methadone, had smoked cannabis and had taken temazepam tablets.
28 In par 36 of his report Mr Champion said in part:-
"As indicated above Mr Wicks spoke of consuming alcohol, prescription medications and cannabis in the period leading up to the incident which saw him charged. While he has been an abuser of these substances for some time, and could probably be expected to have developed some level of tolerance for these substances, one would surmise that he would still have been substance affected, in terms of his judgment being impaired, and potentially his personal control."
29 I accept as accurate the history given by the prisoner to Dr Westmore and Mr Champion which I have referred to and I accept the opinions expressed by Dr Westmore and Mr Champion which I have quoted or referred to.