The Queen v Munt & Ors [2014] VSC 675

4 Both you and your co-accused Tyson Folino and Kiernan Cameron who were in another vehicle saw the firearm and decided not to go with you, Long and McLeod. After you got out of the car, which was parked behind the van facing in the same direction, you were seen by some members of Mr Harris' group who were in a car. As you crossed the road heading towards Mr Harris, they noticed that you were armed and one Chamma drove his vehicle in your direction but missed you. That car and those in it left the area.

5 You challenged Mr Harris who out the television on the ground and moved towards the driver's side of the van. You shot him. He grabbed his left shoulder. The bullet entered the front of his upper left shoulder. He ran off towards Strang Street and collapsed and died in the driveway of 40 Branton Road.

6 You got back into the car and said to you Long, "Go Go let's get out of here". You Long yelled, "What did you do that for?", and you replied, "Don't worry, I didn't hit him." McLeod said, "Why the fuck did you do that?" You Long said, "This is my car. Why the fuck."

7 The three of you spent the rest of the early morning driving around the western suburbs. You Long telephoned you Folino and told you what had happened. You Long and you Folino heard news reports that a man in Hoppers Crossing had died after being shot and concluded that it was Mr Harris.

8 At that time, you Munt apparently had Long's car. Sometime after 11 am on 20 August 2013 you arrived at Folino's house in a different car. You said that you had shot at Mr Harris but missed him. You Long then told you Folino, "No you shot him in the arm. He grabbed hold of his arm and ran off".

9 Your conduct must amount to the crime of manslaughter. Your actions in shooting Mr Harris were lawful. Had you intended to kill him or cause him really serious injury then you would have been guilty of murder. As I have already observed your shooting at Mr Harris was unlawful it was intended at the very least to scare him, it is also dangerous. Although this is a case where the dangerousness of your act is self-evident. It is dangerous as a matter of law because a reasonable person in your position would have realised that you were exposing another person to an appreciable risk of severe injury. This offending is a very serious example of the crime of manslaughter which carries a penalty of 20 years' imprisonment.

10 You Long were very concerned that you might lose your motor car. You arranged for you Folino to store it in the garage at your place because it became known that the registration number regulation number of the car was known to the authorities. The car was the real link to those who had been involved in the shooting. You Long had purchased the car only a few days before 19 August from one Ross Heaney. So the paper trail would lead to you. So you Long arrange for Heaney to sign a new set of transfer papers showing you Folino as purchaser. That I assume was because you Folino had not gone to the scene of the shooting.

11 It was not much of a plan because the tracing of the car to you Folino would have been very likely to bring the scheme undone. Because the plan was designed to conceal the fact that both you Long and his car were involved in the events of the early morning of 19 August 2013 it was an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

12 The car was found by the police in you Folino's garage on 28 August 2013. A sawn off shotgun was find in the garage and you Folino admitted ownership of it. That conduct constitutes the crime of possession of a category E firearm.

13 The crime of attempting to pervert the course of justice carries a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment and the firearm offence carries a maximum penalty of 14 years and a fine of 1800 penalty units. The attempt to pervert the course of justice was conceded by the prosecution to be a not very serious example of the offending and the firearm offence is a reasonably serious example of the offending of the kind because the barrel of the shotgun have been shortened.

14 At the true heart of this case has been the death of Mr Harris, and it has been drawn to my attention that today would have been his 30th birthday. On the plea I received Victim Impact Statements from Jane Cutter, Harris's mother; Rodney Cutter his step-father; Sian and Chantal Cutter, his sisters; and Isabella Harris his former partner and mother of his two children (on her behalf and on behalf of her children).

15 Mr Cutter read his statement, and the statements of Jane, Sian and Chantal Cutter were read to the Court. The effect on the whole extended family has been profound and the effect are ongoing. The extreme futility of what occurred in this case heightens the grief of all involved. There is no explanation for the events.

16 Although I recognize that it is only the restoration of Zebulon Harris to his loved ones which could cure the grief, that of course cannot happen. I hope that as time passes there might be some improvement, but I accept that the pain will never end.

17 This case demonstrates the danger of drugs, methylamphetamine in particular, and the danger of firearms. The danger of each is clear, but the combination of both is now often seen to be fatal in the most inexplicable of circumstances.

18 The futility of conduct which leave a young father dead and which will see another young man in prison for many years does not seem to get through to young men in our community. I can only hope that it does so soon.

19 In this case the shooting was pointless and unnecessary. Zebulon Harris represented no threat to the accused or his group. To be carrying a gun in the circumstances was bad enough, to fire it an somebody in the dark, or half-dark is beyond belief. It is to live life in the word of the methylamphetamine addict; it is a world I do not understand. It is perhaps some partial explanation but it is no excuse.

20 Since of effect of taking methylamphetamine is pretty well known to those who take it, it potentially make this conduct worse although it is bad enough in any event. The futility of conduct which leaves a young father dead and which will see another young man in prison for many years does not seem to get through.

21 Harley Munt, you are now 23 years of age. On your plea I received a written outline of submissions and detailed psychological report from Dr Dion Gee dated 28 September 2014. Subsequent to the hearing of the plea I also received some material from your counsel which I had indicated at the time of the plea hearing that I was prepared to have sent to me. The material shows that you have returned negative result to routine drug screening since you have been in custody.

22 I also received two letter which showed that you are attempting to get into courses dealing with alcohol and drug addiction and violence prevention. I also received certificates which show you have completed course in cleaning operations and using ideas and techniques for creative work. I will mark that material Exhibit 11M on the plea.

23 You have been in trouble in the past and have prior convictions. Those prior convictions relate almost entirely to your relationship with your partner, Hayley. That relationship has been marked in particular by threats by you to kill her. On 9 April 2013, you were sentenced to be imprisoned for three months and then to be released on a Community Correction Order, which you commenced on 13 June 2013. That was for assault, recklessly causing serious injury, some traffic matters and some matters involving the breach of a Community Correction Order. It followed that you were on that order at the time you committed this offence. It is clear that you were not making any attempt to comply with or benefit from that Order.

24 I note that there are elements of violence, or at the very least the threat of violence, in much of your prior offending.

25 You were born and raised in Melbourne. Your father is Aboriginal, and that is how you identify yourself. You are very close to your father, who has been diagnosed with cancer. You are close to your younger brother, your older sister, and your two younger sisters. Your mother has two other children from an earlier relationship and you do not see much of them.

26 You went to school at Galvin Park High School in Werribee until you were 15, and then went to Worawa an Aboriginal boarding school in Healesville but you left about three months. You last attended school in 2006.

27 Although you struggled with reading and writing at school you have tried to improve those skills by yourself. After leaving school, you undertook a bricklaying apprenticeship from 2007 to 2010. That is the longest period over which you have been employed.

28 On one occasion, when you were 21 when you were drunk, you crashed a motorcycle into a pole. You sustained injury to your right side. You were hospitalised for three weeks and have not worked since.

29 You have abused alcohol from the age of 13 or 14. You used Ecstasy when about 14, and cannabis heavily from 16 to 20. From age 17, you used amphetamines and methylamphetamines until you went into custody in April 2013, but when released you resumed that use and you were using heavily at the time of offending.

30 Since you went into custody you have not used illicit substances and have been stabilised on methadone. You also take antidepressants and antipsychotic medication which has been prescribed to you. I am satisfied that you are making a real effort to get rid of you drug addiction. You will not find it easy.

31 You are being held in protection because of threats which have been made. Mr Harris was friendly with a group who would be regarded as having influence in prison.

32 Long term, you want to live with your sister in the country and work with her and her husband in the sheep shearing business. You have a son Levi, who is just over 2 years old. As I have already observed, you had a relationship with Levi's mother, Hayley, from about 2006.

33 I have already noted that most of your prior convictions occurred as a result of your dealings with her and your inability to obey court orders in relation to her. I am told that relationship is now over and it was not resumed after your release from prison in June 2013. You remain on a friendly basis and Hayley bring your son to visit you once a month.

34 After your release from prison in June 2013, you started taking methamphetamine, supporting your habit by street dealing. It was because of that dealing that you got the rifle you used on 19 August 2013. You have owned it for about three months, that is you got it shortly after your release from prison.

35 On the night you had been using crystal methamphetamine, you had been out playing poker machines, which you were asked to assist in getting a friend's property back which it was asserted to you had been stolen. You chose to take the weapon with you. No explanation has been advanced as to why you did that although you did say to the police that Long told you "to bring your thing". Taking the weapon could only cause harm and trouble. It did both.

36 You saw Mr Harris carrying a television. He was not threat to you. You were carrying your gun in such a way that it caused others to attempt to run you over. You did not shoot at the car. You shot at Mr Harris who was moving towards the door of the van. Why you did that is a question which will never be answered, but it cost Mr Harris his life. We abhor the use of firearms in our community because they are so dangerous, even if accidentally discharged. They are, however, exceedingly more dangerous if deliberately fired.

37 It was a serious matter that you chose to take the weapon and very serious that you chose to fire it. I am prepared to accept that it was not your intention to shoot Mr Harris but, shooting in his direction was very dangerous. It might have been that in your drug-addled state you did not appreciate it but that - as I have already observed - is no excuse.

38 Since this is a care including the deliberate shooting of a firearm, it is at the more serious end of the spectrum of offending of this kind. I am satisfied that you regret what you have done and that you are sorry for it. You show signs of remorse and I regard your plea of guilty as being of practical benefit and assisting in your demonstration of remorse. You have provided a consistent account that you did not intend to shoot Mr Harris and you accepted what you did was wrong and that you wish it had never happened. I accept that you believe those matters genuinely.

39 Dr Gee, in his detailed report, said that you have had a difficult upbringing in a family which although intact, had been dysfunctional because of the effects of alcohol, drugs and gambling, and domestic violence. You suffered physical abuse at the hands of your father, some in the name of discipline, and some sexual abuse from an uncle. Your upbringing was difficult and unsatisfactory. Your role models were negative, and as a response to that violence you have suffered with relationships. You have engaged in self-harm and attempted suicide. Your cognitive function is at the law average range but you do not appear to have any intellectual disability. Dr Gee said of you:

Whilst a comprehensive assessment of Mr Munt's formative development was outside the scope of the referral brief, from the information currently available it would appear that his life to date has been marred by extensive social, cultural, and emotional disruption/disadvantage; and deprived of adaptive and prosocial experiences. Collectively, Mr Munt's life course has led to the development of several interlinking psychological mechanisms that appear to underpin his current disposition, and in part help explain his past aberrant behaviour. That is, through numerous maladaptive processes, Mr Munt currently presents with: 1) emotional and behavioural mis/dsyregulation (resulting in an external locus of control, instability of mood, impulsivity, deficits in autonomy, a dependence on substances as a means of self-regulation, hyper-viligence, a reliance on 'escape/avoidance' behaviours to manage trauma sequelae, and low frustration/distress tolerance; 2) cognitive distortions - that it antisocial attitudes and a pro-criminal thinking style - which appear to make him vulnerable to 'act out' in an aberrant manner (expressed through diminished social-moral reasoning, limited consequential thinking, an external attribution style, a sense of entitlement, paranoid ideation, a hostile/fearful world view, the instrumental use of aggression, and beliefs that aberrant behaviour is a way of meeting ones needs); 3) intimacy deficits (underpinned by a pervasive mistrust of others, reduced relationships skills, hostility/aggression toward women, low self-efficacy, an insecure attachment style, a diminished sense of identity, fears of exploitation, and reduced assertiveness); and 4) social skills deficit (ie, poor problem solving skills, minimal conflict resolution skills, feelings of inadequacy, and diminished social competence/connection).[1]

40 Dr Gee concluded that you suffered from a major depressive disorder of moderate severity, dysthymia, substance use disorder, and acute stress disorder. He was satisfied that you did not meet the criteria for intellectual disability, although you may suffer from a specific learning disability. Although there are some indications of it, Dr Gee could not, without further testing, say whether or not you have an acquired brain injury.

41 In Victoria, it is the law that mental illness may affect your sentence in a number of ways, and the principles are set out in a case called R v Verdins.[2] Dr Gee was of the opinion that your mental illness or illnesses did not account for your behaviour, that is, most of the portions of what was said in Verdins' case would not apply to you.

42 Dr Gee did, however, conclude that your illness or illnesses would make any sentence to be served more difficult for you and you would be entitled to have that taken into account on your behalf. I was urged by your counsel that this is how I should see Dr Gee's report, and I will do so.

43 Dr Gee made a number of comments about your future management in the prison system. I will arrange for a copy of his report to be forwarded to the relevant authorities. You are relatively young, your prospects of rehabilitation are difficult to assess, but you have shown a determination in the period of over a year that you have been imprisoned that you want to improve yourself. That is in your favour, your aims are good aims, but your future will depend on your ability to remain drug-free when you are ultimately released from prison.

44 You pleaded guilty and you do get benefit for having done that, and I have already said that I regard you as remorseful. I have taken into account all the matters put to me on your behalf on the plea. This is a very serious example of the offence charge. It was pointless and it led to the death of another young man leaving two children without a father.

45 I am obliged to have regard to just punishment and both general and specific deterrence. Somehow the message has to be communicated to young men like you that taking methamphetamine leads to disaster, both for themselves and for others.

46 You will be imprisoned for 11 years with a non-parole period of 8 years. I fix the non-parole period because I regard 8 years as potential parole as appropriate for you in your case. I declare that 420 days has been served by way of pre-sentence detention.

47 I indicate that had it not been for your early plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to be imprisoned for 14 years with a non-parole period of 11 years. I order that the above declaration and indication be entered in the records of the Court.

48 I come now to deal with you, Dale Long. I observed in discussion, and I have already said in my reasons, that your offending is at the lower end of offending which would constitute the crime of attempting to pervert the course of justice. You had a divided motive of trying to keep your newly purchased $2,800 motor car out of the hands of the police and keeping yourself away from the events for which I have just had to sentenced Mr Munt.

49 Since the car was the real connection which the police had to the offending and the offender, the concealment of it and the true ownership of it, amounted to an attempt to pervert the course of justice and that included your attempt to recreate the transfer of the vehicle not to you but to Mr Folino.

50 Dale Long, you are now 25 years of age. I was urged to treat you as a youthful offender so that the most important consideration in sentencing you would be your rehabilitation. You are relatively young, but you are now at a point in your life where you have to decide whether or not you want to make something of yourself. I think you realise that on this occasion you came pretty close to being much more seriously involved as things have turned out and I suspect that you truly regret the events.

51 You have grown up in Hoppers Crossing with your older half-sister, your mother's child from an earlier relationship. You have a good relationship with your mother but have difficulty in confiding in her. Your relationship with your father has been difficult. Alcohol-fuelled violence has played a part in your household.

52 About two years ago, your parents separated. You remained at home, your mother has a new partner to whom you do not really relate. You have had various relationships, a long relationship with Chantelle, and a somewhat shorter but perhaps more serious relationship with Claudia. Your most recent relationship, one with Casey, does not look as though it will continue.

53 You have been upset and influenced by the suicide of your uncle about 18 months ago. After attending Hoppers Crossing Secondary School, you attended the Gordon Institute and obtained a Certificate 2 in Horticulture. You worked in two businesses run by Chantelle's parents and later in two businesses relating to your horticultural qualifications. That was for a period of six years in all. You have not worked for the last two years.

54 Although you had involvement with alcohol and drugs in the past, you have become addicted to methlyamphetamine, which you continue to use. Although you have reduced your use of methlyamphetamine, you have to in the very near future cease to use it altogether. You are afraid of imprisonment, particular because of the potential influence of Mr Harris's friends.

55 You started counselling with Ms Alison Maynard in August 2012 and - although sometimes spasmodically - you have kept that up. I assume that that was as a result of being placed on a Community Correction Order in July 2012 for recklessly causing injury. It is not clear from the record, but it looks as though you probably successfully completed that order before these events.

56 You were placed on a further order in December 2013 for drug possession offences, including possession of methlyamphetamine. You failed to do much in compliance with that order and arrangements were made to breach you and cancel that order.

57 When you appeared at Werribee Magistrates' Court on 1 October 2014, charged with that breach and then to be dealt with for the original charges, the original order was confirmed and you remain on that order until February 2015. On the same day, you were convicted of the possession of a prohibited weapon and released on a further Community Correction Order for 18 months, ie until April 2016.

58 Those orders do seem to me somewhat extraordinary since you frankly admit that you are still using methlyamphetamine, although in significantly reduced amounts. On the plea I received reports from Dr Aaron Cunningham, psychologist, dated 13 October 2014 and Ms Alison Maynard, psychologist, dated 17 September 2014.

59 Dr Cunningham, not surprisingly, diagnosed you as suffering stimulant use disorder. Dr Cunningham recommended a sentence which would facilitate your rehabilitation and I will accede to that suggestion, but you should understand this: if you breach the order in which I am going to place you, I will not hesitate to imprison you, and I will imprison you for a significant period. This is your last chance.

60 Dale Long, you will be released on a Community Correction Order for a period of two years; I will impose conditions on you that you complete unpaid community work as ordered, but it may be that the unpaid community work portion of the order that you are already on might be regarded as being satisfactory for those purposes, that is a matter that Community Corrections will have to work out. There will be a condition that you undergo assessment and treatment, including drug testing, and that you be under the supervision of Community Corrections and I think it would be sensible in the circumstances if you were to undergo a mental health assessment and undergo any treatment which is ordered for you. You will be required to report to Werribee Community Corrections Services at 87 Synnot Street, Werribee before 4 pm on this coming Friday, 24 October.

61 I make it clear those matters that I have pointed out to you as the conditions have been previously explained to you by the Community Corrections Officer and you have consented to being released on those conditions.

62 You probably should understand, Mr Long, that it is pretty unusual for somebody who comes to this Court to get this sort of disposition. It is only because I regard the fact that the concealment of the car did not in any real sense impede the police investigation that I have done what I have done.

63 On 16 September 2014, you, Tyson Folino, pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice and possession of a Category E handgun which was not registered. Incidentally, it could not have been registered because of the nature of it. These reasons should be read in conjunction with the reasons for the sentencing in the cases of Harley Munt and Dale Long. You were present in court when I delivered those sentences.

64 The facts may be stated briefly. In the early hours of 19 August 2013, Harley Munt shot and killed Zebulon Harris. That shooting occurred because the group of which Mr Harris was part had removed a Volkswagen van from the home of Matthew Harrower. That group said they were entitled to do so. Mr Harrower's friends, of whom you were one, thought the van had been stolen and a posse was organised to get it back.

65 A group of you met up. You saw that Munt was armed and decided not to go on the expedition. You were therefore ultimately disconnected from the events which led to Mr Harris's death. It does not have anything much to do with this case, but it is to your credit. Later on in the morning, you found out that Mr Harris had died as a result of being shot by Munt. You also knew that Munt, Long and McLeod had been in Long's car and that the car had been used as the means of escape.

66 Long was concerned that the police might seize his car and he would lose his money. A plan was struck that you would hide the car in the garage at your place and that the transfer papers would be re-executed so you appeared to be the purchaser and therefore the registered owner of the vehicle. All this was designed to protect Long, but by misleading the police in their investigation.

67 On 28 August 2013, the police came to your place and found the car. That is all of the circumstances that amount to the attempt to pervert the course of justice in your case. When the police searched your garage, they found a sawn-off double-barrelled shotgun, a nasty weapon and one which you should not have had, particular after you knew what had happened to Mr Harris.

68 You are now 26 years of age. You are married and if you get yourself off drugs, you have the support of your wife. You have a criminal history that demonstrates that you have not taken much advantage from the help offered to you. From the time of these events, as I have already observed to you, you have been in fair amount of trouble.

69 After these events, you were arrested and remanded in custody until you were bailed in March 2014 for unrelated offending. From March 2014, you were on the CISP program until you were sentenced in July 2014. You had already been sentenced in November 2013, when you were sentenced for drug and firearms offences and you were released on a Community Correction Order for 24 months on conditions which were designed to assist you, but by July 2014 you were again before the courts for serious drug offences, possessing methylamphetamine, receiving stolen goods and using a prohibited weapon. You were released on a further Community Correction Order for a period of 18 months. But by September 2014, you were back before the courts charged with trafficking and possession of methylamphetamine and dealing with the proceeds of the crime. You were fined $2,500. It is plain that the last conviction puts the Community Correction Orders that you were on in peril.

70 On your plea, I received a report from Pamela Matthews, a forensic psychologist. Ms Matthews set out much of your background. Your parents separated when you were about 10 and both entered new relationships. You continued to see your father and appear to have had a good relationship with both your father and your stepfather. Your childhood appears to have been a happy one. You grew up in part with firearms available to you, and you have said that the weapon that you had came from the family farm, as had the other weapon for which you have a conviction. I treat the explanation about this weapon a bit sceptically, I must say, but you have now got two, if not three, convictions involving firearms and anything else in relation to firearms will result in you going to prison.

71 Your relationship with your mother has been spoiled by your drug taking, of which she does not approve. You have re-established in recent times a relationship with your younger brother who works as a security guard. As a child, you were suspected as suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and you think that you had an EEG but no formal diagnosis was ever made.

72 You completed Year 12 at Emerald College and you received an administrative pass. You appear to have enjoyed your years at Gleneagles Secondary College more than your time at Eltham. Your father was a champion boxer and introduced you to the world of gyms and of boxing, but that was not the path that you took.

73 A friend introduced you to kickboxing and against the wishes of your family, you took that sport up. You became very successful at it, you fought for Victoria. However, when you were competing in Thailand, you suffered concussion and a bleed on the brain but you were forced to fight again almost immediately. That ended your career, but - perhaps more importantly - you are said to have scarring on both frontal lobes.

74 Because it represented a career to you, you missed kickboxing but that is over forever. You have trained as a renderer and have worked with your father-in-law and later with another firm who worked in the high end of the market, who were flexible in relation to the time that you needed to follow your kickboxing.

75 You have now been married for two years. You have a seven month old son. Your relationship is on the edge and if you do not do the right thing, then your marriage will be over. You moved to the Werribee area after your brain injury. You were then working at the Casino and you were working extremely long hours and that is when you were introduced to methylamphetamine by your co-workers. After pursuing that for a time, you stopped working full time and your use of methylamphetamine grew to seven grams or more each week.

76 Because of your contacts from kickboxing, you could apparently access the drugs relatively cheaply. You hid your habit from your wife and from other members of your family. You are still using methylamphetamine, but at a reduced level and you had not used for four days when you saw Ms Matthews. You have been working for your father-in-law as a tiler and you tell me that that work can continue but - again - you know that will depend on you and what you do.

77 You have been a gambler, but you have managed to give that up and show some financial responsibility; again a demonstration that if you turn your mind to things, you can do it.

78 Ms Matthews' report suggests that, without there having been any specific testing, it is pretty likely that you do have a brain injury:

... Mr Folino presents on screening testing with cognitive deficits which appear to have a developmental learning component, with an additional overlay of deficits associated with either Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Acquired Brain Injury although the historical indications and the overall pattern of preliminary results would more strongly suggest an Acquired Brain injury. A through [sic] and comprehensive neuropsychological assessment is recommended in order to confirm and define the results of this current testing.[3]

79 That is not good for you, but it is not the absolute end of the world and there are organisations that can give you help in relation to managing that. One of the things that might be done when you are on the Community Correction Order that I am going to release you on is that some investigation should be made into that possibility of you actually suffering from a brain injury and what supports might be available to you. You would be surprised how much is out there if you learn how to look for it properly.

80 Because of what was said in Ms Matthews' report, I ordered that you be assessed for a Community Correction Order. The report is unfavourable, and it is unfavourable for reasonably obvious reasons; it is because you have been non-compliant and because you have kept offending.

81 Now, you have had a few things going on, including this case and your cases in the Magistrates' Court and so on, but apart from attending to your family and your work, the only thing you will have to concentrate on in the immediate future is this Community Correction Order so there should not be any conflicts with the appointments that you have and because of your bad history, this will have to come before work. I know you are keen to earn money, but for the time being you have just got to meet these appointments. Your wife has, in the past, given you help in knowing when your appointments are and I am sure she will help you in the future to do that because there is a fair bit riding on it.

82 You will be released on a Community Correction Order for the period of 2 years. I direct that the intensive period of the order be for 12 months and that you undergo direct supervision for 12 months. I will impose a treatment and rehabilitation condition, including the assessment and treatment for drug users, and mental health assessment and treatment.

83 You know a bit about how the system works in Community Corrections and once I have made the order and once you consent to being on the order, you will have to obey the directions of the people there, in particular in relation to your treatment and rehabilitation.

84 Some of that may, if it is deemed to be necessary, involve residential courses and the like. I suspect it is probably unlikely in your case, but it is a possibility; you have got all those things ahead of you.

85 Mr Folino, you are convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice and possession of an unregistered Category E handgun and you will be released on a Community Correction Order for the period of two years on the conditions that I have announced.

I certify that this and the 1816 preceding pages are a true copy of the reasons for Sentence of Justice Coghlan of the Supreme Court of Victoria delivered on 22 October 2014.

[1] Report of Dr Dion Gee, Forensic Psychologist, dated 28 September 2014.

[2] [2007] VSCA 102; (2007) 16 VR 269.

[3] Report of Ms P Matthews, Forensic Psychologist, dated 14 October 2014.