PLEAS IN SEX CASES:

1

• PLEAS IN SEX CASES
• RISK, RECIDISM
• RECALCITRANCE
• Dr Ian Freckelton SC

2
Dealing with the Harsh Environment

• No point in seeking judicial sympathy, or
• empathy, or much mercy
• Need for caution in relation to tone
• Important to treating the victim with respect
• Realism and pragmatism required

3
Orthodox Approaches to Sentencing

• Highly condemnatory
• Strong emphasis on punishment/retribution,
  denunciation,
• specific and general deterrence,
• community protection.
• R v D 1997) 69 SASR 413 at 423 Sex offences
  are offences that cause a feeling of outrage and
  revulsion in the community. The penalty must
  reflect that feeling. They involve a serious
  breach of trust.

4
Specifics of Sex Offending

• Lack of advantage in analysing detail
• Concentrate on the offender
• Be wary of suggestion of consent may be
  offensive and/or wrong
• Some offences cannot be the subject of consent
• Be wary of hierarchies of penetration
• Digital/penile/oral anal/vaginal etc

5
The Spectrum of Offending

• DPP v Barnes 2007 VSCA 51 at 13 per Redlich
  JA The crime of rape is inherently serious. But
  the circumstances of its commission and the
  gravity of the offending will vary
  significantly.

6
Child Pornography Possession Spectrum R v Oliver
2003 1 Cr App R 463

• Level 1 covers "images depicting erotic posing
  with no sexual activity".
• Level 2, "sexual activity between children, or
  solo masturbation by a child".
• Level 3, "non-penetrative sexual activity between
  adults and children".
• Level 4, "penetrative sexual activity between
  children and adults".
• Level 5, "sadism or bestiality".

7
Punishment

• Communication of STD
• Age and health issues
• Health of offender
• In R v Smith (1987) 44 SASR 587 at 589
• "ill health will be a factor tending to mitigate
  punishment only when it appears that imprisonment
  will be a greater burden on the offender by
  reason of his state of health or when there is a
  serious risk of imprisonment having a gravely
  adverse effect on the offenders health."

8
General Deterrence

• DPP v DL DPP v CB 2006 VSCA 280 at 39 per
  Neave JA The principle of general deterrence
  requires strong condemnation of those who
  sexually penetrate children, whether they do so
  opportunistically, or as the result of
  premeditation.

9
Stigma and Opprobrium

• Ryan v The Queen 2001 HCA 21 (2001) 75 ALJR
  815
• Major debates note Kirby and Callaway JJ

10
Impact on Family Members

• R v Panuccio, Unreported, Victorian Court of
  Appeal, 4 May 1998
• Although the Court is not, both as a matter of
  compassion and common sense, impervious to the
  consequences of a sentence upon other members of
  the family of a person in prison, such factors
  will need to be exceptional or extreme before
  the Court will tailor its sentence in order to
  relieve the plight of those other family members.
  Such a principle is clearly an obvious one,
  because the Courts primary function is to impose
  a sentence which meets the gravity of the crime
  committed by the person who is being sentenced.
  There will rarely be a case where a sentence of
  imprisonment imposed does not have consequential
  effects upon the spouse, children or other close
  family members who are dependent in one form or
  another upon the person imprisoned.
• For an example of extension of mercy in the
  context of a
• spouse with MS, see R v Lane 2007 VSCA 222

11
Delay in Prosecution

• Largely irrelevant
• Sometimes can have adverse impact on
• offender
• Can have deterrent/punitive effect

12
Plea of Guilty

• R v DW 2006 VSCA 196 at 19
• "It is one thing to plead guilty at the door of
  the court when it looks like the game may be up.
  The law takes the view that that is worth a
  discount. But it is quite another to plead guilty
  immediately and thereby save the victims and the
  community any further burden. That is likely to
  attract a much larger discount and a good deal
  more respect."

13
Serious Sex Offender Status

• Prima facie cumulation if
• Convicted of 2 or more sexual offences for each
  of which he or she has been sentenced to a term
  of imprisonment or detention in a YTC or
• Convicted of at least one sexual offence and at
  least one violent offence arising out of the one
  course of conduct for each of which he or she has
  been sentenced to a term of imprisonment or
  detention in a YTC.

14
Sex Offender Monitoring

• Administrative mechanism
• Not punitive
• However, may give confidence in relation to
  community protection
• An aspect of the stigma accompanying conviction

15
Sexual Abuse of Offender

• R v AWF (2000) 2 VR 1 at 4
• "Clearly evidence of this kind is relevant,
  certainly where there is no dispute as to the
  existence of the abuse and there is some expert
  evidence which would connect that abuse with the
  offender's subsequent misbehaviour. One should be
  careful, however, not to assume that abuse of
  that kind will automatically lead to some
  reduction of sentence. Otherwise there might be a
  plethora of unfortunate experiences put forward
  as the basis for similar reductions. In general
  it is not so much the cause that is important
  rather it is the consequences which flow from
  those earlier events. If there is evidence to
  link them to a condition or state of mind which
  is a proper basis for viewing the criminality of
  an offender as less serious and for saying that
  specific or general deterrence (or both) should
  have a smaller part to play in the
  overall sentencing process, then that condition
  will have a greater relevance and significance."

16
Paedophilia

• DSM-IV-TR
• A. Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent,
  intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual
  urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity
  with a prepubescent child or children (generally
  age 13 years or younger).
• B. The person has acted on these sexual urges, or
  the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked
  distress or interpersonal difficulty.
• C. The person is at least age 16 years and at
  least 5 years older than the child or children in
  Criterion A.

17
Sentencing Effect of Paedophilia

• R v Stuckles (1998) 17 CR (5th) 330 at 347 54
• "Pedophilia is an explanation, not a defence.
  Society is entitled to protection no less from
  pedophiles than from those who sexually abuse
  children without this tendency. General
  deterrence is a concept which seeks, in part, to
  protect the public by signalling, through
  imprisonment, a potential consequence to others
  of the condemned conduct. There is no basis for
  concluding that it has, or ought to have, a
  reduced role in the sentencing of pedophiles."

18
Channon v The Queen (1978) 20 ALR 1 at 4 "An
abnormality may reduce the moral culpability of
the offender and the deliberation which attended
his criminal conduct yet it may mark him as a
more intractable subject for reform than one
who is not so affected, or even as one who is
so likely to offend again that he should be
removed from society for a lengthy or
indeterminate period."
19
Verdins, Buckley Vo2007 VSCA 102 (2007) 169
A Crim R 581

• The important consideration for
• sentencing is not the diagnosis or the
• diagnostic label.

20
Where a diagnostic label is applied to an
offender, as usually occurs in reports from
psychiatrists and psychologists, this should be
treated as the beginning, not the end, of the
enquiry. As we have sought to emphasise, the
sentencing court needs to direct its attention
to how the particular condition (is likely to
have) affected the mental functioning of the
particular offender in the particular
circumstances that is, at the time of the
offending or in the lead-up to it or is likely
to affect him/her in the future
21
MI may reduce moral culpability if it had the
effect of (a) impairing the offenders ability
to exercise appropriate judgment (b) impairing
the offenders ability to make calm and rational
choices, or to think clearly (c) making the
offender disinhibited (d) impairing the
offenders ability to appreciate the
wrongfulness of the conduct
22
New Statement of Principles

• 1. The condition may reduce the moral culpability
  of the offending conduct, as distinct from the
  offenders legal responsibility. Where that is
  so, the condition affects the punishment that is
  just in all the circumstances and denunciation
  is less likely to be a relevant sentencing
  objective.

23
2. The condition may have a bearing on the kind
of sentence that is imposed and the conditions
in which it should be served. 3. Whether general
deterrence should be moderated or eliminated as
a sentencing consideration depends upon the
nature and severity of the symptoms exhibited by
the offender, and the effect of the condition on
the mental capacity of the offender, whether at
the time of the offending or at the date of
sentence or both.
24
4. Whether specific deterrence should be
moderated or eliminated as a sentencing
consideration likewise depends upon the nature
and severity of the symptoms of the condition as
exhibited by the offender, and the effect of the
condition on the mental capacity of the
offender, whether at the time of the offending
or at the date of the sentence or both.
25
5. The existence of the condition at the date of
sentencing (or its foreseeable recurrence) may
mean that a given sentence will weigh more
heavily on the offender than it would on a
person in normal health. 6. Where there is a
serious risk of imprisonment having a
significant adverse effect on the offenders
mental health, this will be a factor tending to
mitigate punishment
26
(e) obscuring the intent to commit the offence
(f) contributing (causally) to the commission
of the offence.
27
Anti-Libidinal Therapy

• Controversial
• Not wholly efficacious
• Many unpleasant side-effects
• But suggestive of insight preparedness to
  change

28
Insight

• Into causes of offending
• Into nature of offending ie why the behaviour is
  wrong
• Into effects of offending on victim
• Into relapse signature
• Into need for prophylactic strategies to
• reduce likelihood of recurrence

29
Contrition

• Words come cheap
• Need for actions
• Entry into therapy
• Letter of apology
• S85B Sentencing Act amends by offer
• during sentencing hearing of compensation
  payment
• Need for evidence

30
Actuarial Predictions of Risk

• Important proiliferation of instruments used by
  prosecution assessors but with potential
  sometimes to be used to advantage by assessors
  for the offender
• The STATIC-99 and the STATIC-AS
• The VRAG (Violence Risk Appraisal Guide)
• The SVR-20 (Sexual Violence Risk 20)
• The Stable-2000
• The SORAG
• The Risk Matrix 2000
• The SONAR (Sex Offender Need Assessment Rating)
• The RoCRoI (risk of conviction times risk of
  imprisonment
• The RSVP (the Risk For Sexual Violence Protocol)
  
• The Structured Professional Judgment (SPJ)
• The PCL-R (Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised)
• The RRASOR (Rapid Risk Assessment of Sex Offender
  Recidivism)
• The SACJ- Min (Structured Anchored Clinical
  Judgement Minimum)
• The HCL-20 (the Historical Check List 20)

31
TSL v Secretary to the Department of Justice
(2006) 14 VR 109 at 41-42.
As well as having difficulties with accuracy,
predictions of risk may be seen as providing a
veil of science over what is essentially a
social and moral decision about the kind of
offender who creates the greatest fear within
the community. Asking mental health
professionals to assess the risk of future harm
shifts the burden of deciding what to do with
such offenders from the community to clinicians
whose primary role lies within the medical model
of treatment, rather than within the criminal
justice model of punishment and community
protection.
32
Suggestions

• Sensitivity tact in language approach
• Realism pragmatism
• Early decision-making about plea
• strategy
• Procuring of expert or at least corroborative
  evidence