All rights reserved. The purpose of the Act is to aid judicial officers in the construction of sentences. If you receive a good behaviour bond or a community service order, you will have to wait while the appropriate paperwork is prepared. The Sentencing Act 1995 (WA) provides for the sentencing of all persons convicted of an offence and offers a wide range of sentencing options for the courts. Pleading guilty means that you accept that you committed the offence. These sentencing remarks are often published on Australian court websites. Precedents are decisions made in past trials for similar crimes. The District Court deals with serious criminal offences including serious assaults, sexual assaults, serious fraud and commercial theft, burglary and drug offences. It is very important to remember that a factor cannot be an aggravating factor if it is an element of the offence: for example, a sentencing judge should not treat the simple fact threatened use of violence as an aggravating factor for an offence where the threatened use of violence is an element of the offence, such as in robbery offences: See also records relating to thePerth Children's Court. Evidence Act does not apply to sentence proceedings.This leaves sentencing procedure in a curious position. These records cover World Wars I and II and the Korean War. If the court makes an error of law or if the sentence is considered to be too high or too low, an appeal can be made against the decision to another court. Regina v Bloomfield (1998) 101 A Crim R 404. In South Australia, sentencing is the task of a sentencing judge or magistrate in a: When determining the sentence, the court must follow precedents and laws set by State Parliament such as theCriminal Law (Sentencing) Act 1988. NOTE: Most Supreme Court records has a75 year restricted access period that applies to protect the privacy of persons mentioned in the records. Instead, the aggrieved party may take private action to protect their rights or may sue for damages. The man - a school friend of the boy . Failing that, I suggest faxing a letter to the prison seeking confirmation that your client is in protective custody, and the number of hours he is spending in his cell each day.SubmissionsIt is very helpful to prepare a written outline of submissions. But Perth District Court found him guilty of causing grievous bodily harm last year after a trial. Also useful are the records of the various Licensing Courts which provide information on people applying for different types of licenses such as liquor, sandalwood, timber, dog, cart, billiards, confectioners, board and lodging, firewood, pawnbroker, hawkers, pearling, etc. However, normally taking this step is a last resort, because having an unsuccessful factual dispute will erode the benefit which your client would otherwise get from his plea.The client's recordAlways have your client check what the Crown intends to tender as your client's criminal history. What factors does the court take into account? Psychiatric/Psychological reports I always try to prepare for a conference in the same way that I might prepare for a hearing. All rights reserved. Sentences of imprisonment can be suspended where the court considers this appropriate and prisoners can apply for parole once they become eligible. During sentencing in Perth District Court on Friday morning, Judge Alan Troy said Yarran had taken out his anger on the child and used the boiling water as a weapon which had caused . Regina v Hemsley [2004] NSWCCA 228 at para [30].6. He or she usually has to return to prison, serve out the rest of the original sentence and do extra time for breaching the bond. Doing Right to All - 50 years of justice at This booklet attempts to provide answers to some of the many questions people have about how sentencing occurs in Australia. Peace signings are available by appointment. If the offender has a bad record, you might simply concede that his record does not assist him.If your client was on a bond or on bail at the time of the offence, acknowledge that fact in your submissions, rather than waiting for the prosecution to do so.Subjective FeaturesAt the very least you should refer to the offender's age, and any matters in his personal history which might have contributed to the commission of the offence.Other relevant matters may be your client's drug and alcohol history, psychiatric history, and so on.Assistance to authorities and Nature of ImprisonmentIf your client has provided information to the authorities, or given evidence for the prosecution, that should of course be drawn to the attention of the sentencing judge.If you are not in a position to call your client, try to at least get confirmation from the prison that you client is in protection and the nature of his custody.Range of SentencesAt this point in your submissions, you might want to refer to any Judicial Commission Statistics or schedules of cases, which you have obtained.A certain amount of subtlety is required here. October 2 At a Committal Mention the DPP will have taken carriage of the prosecution from the Police. The State Records Office holds records from a number of regional courthouses located throughout the State. History of the Court System in Western Australia, Supreme Court Registry and Central Office, Protocol for Voluntary Criminal Case Conferencing. For Western Australian courts, selected sentencing remarks are available on the Supreme Court and District Court websites. You may be able to get that material out of a psychological/psychiatric report. It has been held that if no direction is made, the common law rules of evidence apply if there is a dispute: If a person breaks the promise, he or she is guilty of the offence of breaching the bond. Rahul Goel was sentenced in Perth District Court on 13 December to three years in prison, to be released after 18 months upon entering a $5,000 recognisance to be of good behaviour for two years. If your expert refers to old reports (which you do not intend to use) in his report, the Crown may well be entitled to seek access to these reports as a condition of admitting the new report.Before you serve or tender a report, you should read the report carefully and consider whether the report actually assists your case, prior to the report being served on the Crown, let alone tendered. By clicking on the following link, you will leave the Supreme Court website and be taken to the eCourts Portal of Western Australia which hosts the Court's decisions. This service is NOT available during actual court proceedings. The sentencing decision was made on the basis that his use of "anti-libidinal drugs" had deprived him of his sex drive. The Queen v Walid Samir SOUEID (IND/718/2022) Sentencing 10:00 AM THE STATE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA v Aaron Scott IVESON (IND/1294/2022) Sentencing 10:00 AM Before HER HONOUR JUDGE WHITBY Court 6-3, District Court Building at para [55].It is clear that for the prosecution to establish an aggravating factor, the onus is on the prosecution to establish that aggravating factor beyond reasonable doubt, but for the offender to establish a mitigating factor, proof only has to be on the balance of probabilities: However, on occasion the judge will publish written reasons for decision. PH2 8NL, If you want to contact us using text relay please follow the guidance at this link - the Next Generation Text Service. These are usually read out to the offender in court. Ahmad v Regina [2006] NSWCCA 177 esp. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results. If you are serving on a jury a light lunch will be provided at a local hotel nearby. Confiscation is the seizure of goods from an offender. Appointments can be made by phoning the office number:. Regina v Thomson & Houlton (2000) 49 NSWLR 383.The offender expressed his contrition to the psychologist Mr Tinker and it is anticipated he will express his contrition in evidence today. Tay Street, Committal Mention . Western Australia District Court Judge Michael John Bowden sentenced Cummins to 12 months in jail, suspended for 18 months, on the provision that he comply with a supervision order. Suvat Sarmisakliglu, 41, was sentenced in the NSW District Court on Tuesday after being arrested at Surry Hills in a taxi along with another man and a backpack full of illicit drug precursor gamma . Probate and Letters of Administration records are name-searchable on the State Records Office catalogue. Following a plea of guilty you will be sentenced and, in most cases, the offence will go on your criminal record. Sentencing resources Australian Current Law - Reporter Lexis Advance Supreme Court of WA. Special circumstancesThe offender is a young man. The decisions are hosted on the eCourts Portal of Western Australia. Then deal with the offence itself, and any expression of remorse the client can make. However if you have decided not to call your client, tendering a report may be the only way to get subjective material before the judge.Character witnessesIt is preferable to be able to call a character in District Court sentence proceedings rather than to simply rely on written character references. The victim or his/her nominee may read the statement out in court. Why is a particular penalty chosen? I try to set out the essential elements of the offence in lay terms; for example: Negotiating with the DPP If it is a bond with supervision, or a community service order, you must usually report within two working days to the Department for Correctional Services. NOTE: Restricted access conditions currently apply to all Children's Court records. 03-n0-00. This offence can be regarded as being towards the lower end of that hierarchy of seriousness.2. Imprisonment (WA) Imprisonment is the most severe penalty that Western Australian courts can impose. If the client claims that he only started committing armed robberies in the aftermath of his grief for the death of his mother, you had better be very clear that the date of the offence for his first conviction for an armed robbery occurred after the date his mother died.One of the advantages of pleading guilty is that if the offender is genuinely remorseful, that remorse may be a very important mitigating factor. Sheriff Court House, Perth Sheriff Court Tuesday 11 May 2021 Data Published at 13:03 on Tuesday 11 May 2021 Criminal No cases allocated for this court. May 1, 8, 29 For example, private property or drugs may be confiscated. The National Center for State Courts' website provides links to civil and criminal case databases for all states, although this is where the consistency ends.Some states, such as New Mexico, include municipal, magistrate and district court cases. Those preparing the report will usually interview the offender, the offenders family, the victim, employers and others who might be relevant to provide the court with the information it requires. All rights reserved. Shocking CCTV footage of a one-punch assault at Perth's Amplifier Bar in January has been released by the Perth District Court. Regina v Bourchas (2002) 133 A Crim R 413 esp. Magistrates Court Restraining Orders Appeals, Doing Right to All - 50 years of justice at. Need help with what's in the Collection? Judicial Officer contact details (NSW Supreme Court), Judicial Officer contact details (NSW District Court). Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act. 122 search results for perth. In particular avoid taking into account so many factors that you end up with a very small sample.Again, if you intend to hand up cases or statistical material, have a copy available for the prosecution.Should I call the client?Probably the second most difficult question in appearing in a District Court sentence matter (after the question of whether the client should plead at all) is in deciding whether or not to call your client.In the District Court in the normal course of things I think it is preferable to call the offender. BackdateDepending on the case, other matters may be relevant, such as assistance to the authorities, nature of the client's imprisonment, and whether the sentences should be cumulative, concurrent, or partly cumulative and partly concurrent.A simple example of such an outline of submissions is attached to this paper.Objective GravityI think it is important to start with the objective gravity of the offence. Do not go overboard; two or three similar cases will probably suffice. Ask your client in his evidence to describe the size of his cell, about how many hours a day he is in his cell (23 out of 24 hours is common), about what access he has to the oval, to education, and to the library.When you can't call the clientI have suggested above that there will be some cases where you will come to the conclusion that it is not in your client's interests for him to give evidence in his sentence proceedings.Where your client is not going to give evidence, it is important to be able to get a subjective case before the court. Then deal with anything relevant that has happened since that time: for example, progress in custody, hopes and plans for the future, and so on.When your client is giving an account of what led him into a life of crime, or to commit a particular offence, he may explain it in terms of particular traumatic events in his life (for example, the death of a parent or a child, or the termination of a relationship).Be conscious of the fact that the sentencing judge probably has very limited material about the subjective circumstances of your client's life in front of him, but one thing he will definitely have will be the client's record. If you receive a good behaviour . Parole is the release of a prisoner on certain conditions for the remainder of his/her sentence. I certainly don't believe in writing or drafting an answer for the client to the contrition question.If your client has been doing well in custody since the date of the offence, make sure he gives evidence about that. The reason for this is that the judge may wish to highlight or otherwise mark important passages in the report, but may not wish to mark the original exhibit. This requirement is very important. The second thing to check is that the version of the facts given in the report is consistent with your instructions, that is, what you expect your client will say in the witness box if called.If you have decided to use a report, wherever possible serve a copy on the Crown prior to the sentence hearing. The State Records Office holds the following naturalisation records for the Supreme Court: Grants of Probate (Wills) and Letters of Administration. The Supreme Court of Western Australia was given jurisdiction in matrimonial causes by the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act of 1863. If the sentence is imprisonment, the court will decide if there is a good reason to suspend the sentence. Court users and members of the public can get copies of sentencing remarks handed down by the Supreme Court of Western Australia. Browse top 100 major debtors of the WA Fines Enforcement Registry. Sentencing. In some criminal cases the trial of an accused person is conducted before a judge alone in the absence of a jury. These sentencing remarks are often published on Australian court websites. The District Court is an intermediate trial court placing it between the Magistrates Court and the Supreme Court in the Western Australian courts hierarchy. If you receive a fine, costs or any other type of monetary penalty, you will automatically have 28 days to pay the amount due. There is also a Children's Drug Court available for minors. In that way your outline of submissions can assist the sentencing judge to structure the remarks on sentence.I try to order the submissions in the same order as the judge might approach sentencing, something like this:1. However it is useful to have the client check the report because it is very easy for a misunderstanding between the expert and your client to lead to errors being made in the report.Wherever possible, have a working copy of the report available to hand up to the judge. Rules and forms. The only exception is when you simply need to introduce yourself to the client and to assure him that you will be out to see him again soon.At the start of a conference with a client it is important to let the client know that anything he says is 'on the record'; that is, he can't tell you one thing and then say another in the witness box.Before getting an account from the client, it is important to make sure that the client understands the nature of the charges, and the evidence against him.If the client wants to plead guilty, my practice is to get a brief life history from him, including of course his account of the offence, and what has happened to him since his arrest. However, it should be a decision informed by your expert advice.I normally try to present to the client the strengths and weaknesses of the case against him. You should of course bear in mind the limited weight which a court may give this material.Some (but not all) prosecutors will not object to the tender of a letter written by your client to the judge expressing his remorse about the offence. We hope you find the site interesting and informative. Consequently, many of the records of the earlier Court of General Quarter Sessions, which had been established in 1829, passed to the Supreme Court and can still be found amongst its records. Jaycob Yarran, 25, has been sentenced to five years for putting toddler's hands in boiling water. Listen. Please Note: The State Records Office does not hold records from every regional courthouse in the State. If you use British Sign Language (BSL) and wish to phone us using a sign language interpreter, you can use the online video relay interpreting service. Current. I prefer to tell the client in advance that at some stage in his evidence in chief I will ask him to tell the judge how he feels about the fact that he has pleaded guilty to this offence or offences, and that that question will be his cue to turn to the judge and speak from his heart about how he feels. NRL player Talatau Junior Amone and his father Talatau Dal Amone faced court charged over an alleged assault. https://guides.library.uwa.edu.au/case_law, Judge for Yourself: a guide to sentencing in Australia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence. Florida and California provide links to county websites, and still others, such as . More serious offences, known as 'indictable offences', begin in the Magistrates Court. See the links in the panel on the left. The outline need only be 2 or 3 pages long.Deal with the aggravating features in your submissions; don't give the prosecution the opportunity to get up and say 'But the offender was on bail for other offences at the time'. Include any other matters that are considered to be relevant. Versions of this Act (includes consolidations, Reprints and "As passed" versions) 'Cowardly' one punch attack at Perth nightclub earns Brent Robert Johnston 12-month jail sentence KATE CAMPBELL PerthNow This means that a court or tribunal is bound by any decisions of a higher court or tribunal. If your client is drug addicted, and you have a record showing that he has not been charged with having drugs in his urine tests, lead evidence from him about that fact, and the number of random urine tests he has been required to give.If your client is in some form of protection, get him to give evidence about the conditions of his custody. Perth Police Court, Charge Books, 1853-1917, Consignment 1386, 1052, & 3146, AN 17, Perth Police Court, Licenses (Liquor and Trade), 1859-1906, Consignment 3294, AN 17, Fremantle Court of Petty Sessions, Evidence Books, 1911-1923, Acc 2952, AN 17, Guildford Court House, Jury List, 1889-1902, Acc 1438, Item 3, AN 17, Broome Courthouse, Pearl Dealers' Licenses Register, Resident Magistrate, 1913-1960, Acc 1352, Item 42, AN 17/BRO, Laverton Licensing Court, Evidence Book, 1911-1922, Acc 1289, Items 25, AN 17 LAV, Narrogin Courthouse, Employer's Register, 1910-1940, Acc 1103, Item 6, AN 17/NAR, Roebourne Court of Petty Sessions, Minutes of Evidence, 1893-1917, Acc 913, Items 15-20, AN 17/ROE, Toodyay Courthouse, Ticket of Leave Registers, 1862-1870, Acc 127, Item 5, AN 17/TOO, York Police Court, Minute Books, 1893-1910, Acc 1086, Items 11-14, AN 17/YOR. An Australian man has pleaded guilty to abducting four-year-old Cleo Smith and holding her at his home for 18 days. These include Police Courts, Local Courts, Licensing Courts, Coroners' Courts and Children's Courts. Decisions & PublicationsCriminal Decisions.