Criminal division – sentencing

11.2.30 Sentencing for attempting to pervert the course of justice

In R v Tognolini [2011] VSCA 113 the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal against a sentence of 6 years imprisonment on a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice and replaced it with a sentence of 4 years imprisonment. In an annexure to the judgment the Court set out the following research by counsel for the applicant into sentences imposed in the previous 10 years for the offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

CASE	CITATION	INDIVIDUAL TERM
DPP (Cth) v Fincham	(2008) 75 ATR 545	6 months’ imprisonment
DPP v Aydin and Kirsch	[2005] VSCA 86	2 years’ imprisonment
DPP v Josefski	(2005) 13 VR 85	15 months’ imprisonment
R v Aydin	(2005) 11 VR 544; [2005] VSCA 85	15 months’ imprisonment
R v Aydin and Flett	[2005] VSCA 87	2 years’ imprisonment and 2½ years’ imprisonment
R v Briggs	(2000) 117 A Crim R 114	12 months’ imprisonment
R v Carey	[2007] VSCA 319	2 years’ imprisonment
R v Coombe	[1999] VSCA 94	4 months’ imprisonment
R v Davis	[2007] VSCA 276	18 months’ imprisonment
R v Dunmall	[2008] VSCA 22	9 months’ imprisonment
R v Galea	[2001] VSCA 115	4 years’ imprisonment
R v Johns	[2010] VSCA 63	2 years’ imprisonment (reduced from 2 ½ years)
R v Matheas	[2003] VSCA 221	6 months’ imprisonment
R v Redmond & Anor	[2006] VSCA 75	3 months imprisonment & 4 months’ imprisonment
R v Ripper	[2008] VSCA 40	2 years’ imprisonment
R v Rodden	[2005] VSCA 24	18 months’ imprisonment
R v Rogers	[2008] VSCA 114	15 months’ imprisonment
R v Stevens	[2009] VSCA 81	12 months’ imprisonment
R v Walsh	[2002] VSCA 98	3 years’ imprisonment
R v Yacoub	[2006] VSCA 203	2 years’ imprisonment
R v Zaydan & Ors	[2004] VSCA 245	4 years’ imprisonment

In R v Godfrey [2011] VSC 179 Coghlan J imposed a sentence of 3 years imprisonment, suspended for all but the 51 days already served, on a 28 year old woman who had pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice in circumstances where she had provided a false alibi for her then boyfriend who had strangled and dismembered another woman.

In R v Buscema [2011] VSC 206 Nettle JA also reproduced the above list of cases and said at [6]:

“Offences of attempting to pervert the course of justice are conceived of as striking at the heart of the justice system and, therefore, as ordinarily necessitating a custodial disposition. The offence is broadly defined, however, and so may be committed in a wide range of circumstances, and the particular circumstances of each case inform the gravity of the offending. Circumstances which bear upon the assessment of the nature and gravity of particular offending, and so upon the sentence to be imposed, have been identified in Ranford v Western Australia (No 2) (2006) 166 A Crim R 451, 462 as including the following:

a) The consequences which the offending was calculated to avoid;

b) The time for which the deception was maintained and whether it was actively repeated or persisted in or merely allowed to continue;