DPP v Skelland [2022] VCC 759 (23 May 2022)

Last Updated: 1 June 2022

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-22-00160

THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS
v
WILLIAM PARKER SKELLAND

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE DEAN
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	16 May 2022
DATE OF SENTENCE:	23 May 2022
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Skelland
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2022] VCC 759

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW

Catchwords: Nine charges of indecent assault - five complainants - Historical child abuse in the context of a children's home - Contested extradition from the United Kingdom - Early plea of guilty - No genuine evidence of remorse - Elderly offender at time of sentencing - General deterrence - Paedophilic disorder - Low risk of reoffending

Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1958 (Vic)

Cases Cited: N/A

Sentence: Imprisonment of 6 years and 9 months with a non-parole period of 4 years - s6AAA declaration - Imprisonment of 8 years and 6 months with a non-parole period of 5 years and 6 months – Sex offender registration for life

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms C. Duckett	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms N. Kaddeche	Doogue + George

HIS HONOUR:

1 William Parker Skelland, you have pleaded guilty to nine charges of indecent assault on a male, contrary to s.68(3)A of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic). The maximum penalty for that offence at the time of your offending and for the purposes of this sentence is five years imprisonment.
2 On 7 May 2019, when you were residing in the United Kingdom, a warrant was issued in Australia for your arrest for the offending now before the court.
3 On 9 December 2019, you were arrested in England and granted bail, which you revoked yourself on 13 December 2019. You have been in custody since then. You contested your extradition to Australia on health grounds in the United Kingdom High Court and in the United Kingdom Court of Appeal unsuccessfully and on 8 July 2021, you were extradited to Australia.
4 Prior to committal proceedings commencing on 7 February 2022, at which two of your witnesses were cross-examined, you indicated a willingness to plead guilty to some of the charges you were then facing and, ultimately, your matter was resolved on the second day of the committal. I accept that in such circumstances your plea is properly characterised as at an early stage in the proceedings and it has significantly facilitated the administration of justice during the COVID-19 pandemic by the resolution of this matter.
5 However, two of your victims were cross-examined and I do not accept that your plea is evidence of genuine remorse for your offending. Nevertheless, I have taken your plea into account in your favour in mitigation of sentence.
6 You have no prior convictions or subsequent convictions and there are no outstanding charges in your case.
7 The summary of prosecution opening was read to the court and tendered in evidence and your offending may be summarised as follows -
8 In 1972, you and your then wife obtained employment as cottage parents at the
Burwood Boys Home, an institution for boys aged between nine and 15, who were what was then known as wards of the State. The five victims of your crimes were all residents of the home.
9 Your first victim survivor, who I shall refer to as AB, became a resident at the home when he was 10 years old. On an occasion between 1 January 1973 and 3 January 1974 when he was aged 14, you assaulted him in your quarters by masturbating his penis and then placing his penis in your mouth for approximately five minutes. Despite you telling him not to tell anyone he complained to the head of the home, Colin Tutchell. In response, Tutchell struck AB in the face, causing him to fall to the ground. Your offending constitutes Charges 1 and 2 on the Indictment.
10 I have not received a victim impact statement of AB but it is clear that your serious crimes of sexual violence and the exploitation of him must have had a profoundly traumatic effect upon his personal development and ongoing quality of life.
11 Your second victim survivor, who I will refer to as CD, became a resident of the home when he was seven years old. On an occasion between 1 January 1973 and 30 September 1974, you entered his bedroom at night, woke him up and took his pyjama pants off. You fondled his genitals whilst you masturbated yourself to ejaculation. This offence constitutes Charge 3 on the Indictment.
12 I have received in evidence a victim impact statement of CD, detailing the devastating effect your offending has had on his life. He suffers isolation, depression and substance abuse disorders. He is overwhelmed by grief for his life and relives what you did to him over 40 years ago.
13 Your third victim survivor, who I will refer to as EF, began residing in the home when he was eight years old. On an occasion between 12 April 1973 and
23 August 1974, you fondled his penis while you were both watching television. On another occasion between these dates you went into his bedroom at night, woke him up and got into his bed. You pulled his pyjama pants down and placed your erect penis between his buttocks. You then simulated sex before ejaculating on his legs. This offending was also reported at the time to Colin Tutchell and constitutes Charges 4 and 5 on the Indictment. Charge 4 is a rolled-up charge comprising two such incidents
14 I have received in evidence a victim impact statement prepared on EF's behalf by Amanda Westcott, a sexual assault survivor counsellor, again detailing the devastating effect your crimes have had upon his emotional and physical health and wellbeing. Your crimes have profoundly harmed his quality of life.
15 Your fourth victim survivor, who I shall refer to as GH, began residing at the house when he was five or six years old. On an occasion between 30 July 1973 and 30 September 1974, when he was just six years old, you entered his bedroom and forcefully masturbated his penis for some time, causing him pain. You stopped when he began to cry. This offending constitutes Charge 6 on the Indictment.
16 I have received in evidence a victim impact statement of GH and his wife, again, detailing the devastating impact your offending has had upon his personal development and quality of life. His wife attests to his isolated, reserved and wary disposition. She states he is ashamed of what you did to him.
17 Your fifth victim survivor, who I will refer to as IJ, began residing at the house when he was 10 years old. On an occasion between 6 November 1973 and 30 September 1974, within days of him arriving at the house, at night when watching television, you fondled his penis and masturbated him. This offending comprises Charge 7 on the Indictment, which is a representative charge of you performing that act upon him on four or five occasions. Later that night you entered his bedroom, got into his bed, and performed oral sex on him. This offending comprises Charge 8 on the Indictment. A few days later you again entered IJ's bedroom at night, got into his bed, and pushed your erect penis between his buttocks until you ejaculated. This offending comprises Charge 9 on the Indictment, which is a rolled-up charge comprising three such incidents. IJ also reported your offending to Colin Tutchell and he was moved to another cottage.
18 I have received in evidence a victim impact statement of IJ, again detailing the devastating effect your crimes have had upon his personal development and his quality of life. He states how terrifying it was for him and no doubt this terror was experienced by all of your victims.
19 In 1974 you were dismissed from your position as a cottage parent due to your offending. However, the police were not notified and it was not until the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Childhood Sexual Abuse that you were identified and the investigation was commenced that led to the charges that you have pleaded guilty to over 40 years later.
20 You have now been brought to justice for you appalling attacks on vulnerable young boys, who you were entrusted to care for. You systematically abused them for your own deviant sexual gratification and, when your crimes were revealed in 1974, you blamed your wife because you had not had sexual relations with her during her pregnancy. Indeed, you repeated this claim in court during the plea in mitigation hearing.
21 This sentence will be calculated to make it clear that conviction for offending of this nature will result in the imposition of a substantial term of imprisonment and that the court will protect vulnerable children from predators like you.
22 Whilst I accept that specific deterrence is not a prominent sentencing consideration in your case, you will nevertheless be punished for what you did and your conduct will be unequivocally denounced. These are plainly serious examples of the offence that you have pleaded guilty to.
23 I now turn to your personal circumstances.
24 You were born in June 1940, in Manchester, England and are now aged 81. You will soon turn 82. Your childhood and developmental years were marred by World War II. Your father served in the military, did not know of your birth, and returned from that conflict a changed man, as many were. During the war you were raised by your grandmother. You completed your primary and secondary school education and commenced an apprenticeship as a baker. However, you did not complete this and thereafter were engaged in a variety of occupations. You met your wife and you both migrated to Australia in 1970. You resided here until 1991, when you returned to the United Kingdom after your divorce from your wife in 1990.
25 You have a daughter now aged 48, who resides here in Australia but you have nothing to do with her. It would appear that your life was an uneventful one in England until 2019, when you were arrested for your crimes.
26 It is of significance that you have not reoffended since these events and, as I have said, specific deterrence is not a significant consideration in your case.
27 I have received in evidence a comprehensive psychological report of Dr Michael Davis, a clinical and forensic psychologist, setting out your background, developmental history and psychological profile. Dr Davis concludes that you suffer from paedophilic disorder. But given your age and the fact that you have not reoffended in over 45 years your risk of reoffending is low. I accept that this is a correct assessment.
28 You also suffer from depression and mixed personality disorder and it is clear from the contents of the report that there is a level of distorted thinking in relation to your offending.
29 Despite your belated apology to your victims in court, I do not accept that you are remorseful for what you did and you have little or no insight into the shocking trauma you have caused in the lives of your victim survivors.
30 I also do not accept that you are not a suitable candidate for sexual offender treatment. To the contrary, you ought to be required to undergo such treatment to gain some insight into what you have done, and I see no good reason why you should be spared that truth.
31 Nevertheless, I accept that your prospects for rehabilitation may now be properly described as reasonable. I accept that your mental health conditions, in particular, your persistent depression, will increase the burden of imprisonment upon you.
32 You are an elderly man with a number of significant health conditions, necessitating you being held in the prison hospital at Ravenhall Prison, where no doubt you receive appropriate medial treatment and support. I accept, however, that your medical conditions increase the hardship of imprisonment upon you and this hardship has been further intensified by the COVID-19 restrictions in place in the Corrections system.
33 You fall to be sentenced as a serious sexual offender in relation to
Charges 3-9 on the Indictment and for that reason the principal purpose for which the sentences are to be imposed on those charges is the protection of the community and I have had regard to that fact in the formulation of these sentences.
34 It was submitted on your behalf that I ought to impose a partially suspended sentence in your case, in effect providing for your imminent release from prison. In my opinion such a disposition would be entirely disproportionate to the gravity of your crimes and would completely fail to reflect the purposes for which this sentence is to be imposed.
35 In the result the sentence of the court is as follows.
36 On Charge 1 on the Indictment you were convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for 12 months.
37 On Charge 2 on the Indictment you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for 2 years and 9 months.
38 On Charge 3 on the Indictment you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for 18 months.
39 On Charge 4 on the Indictment you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for 12 months.
40 On Charge 5 on the Indictment you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for 2 years.
41 On Charge 6 on the Indictment you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for 9 months.
42 On Charge 7 on the Indictment you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for 1 year and 9 months.
43 On Charge 8 on the Indictment you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for 3 years.
44 On Charge 9 on the Indictment you are convicted and sentenced to be imprisoned for 2years and 3 months.
45 The sentence imposed on Charge 8 is the base sentence.
46 I direct that 3 months of the sentence on Charge 1, 1 year of the sentence on Charge 2, 6 months of the sentence on Charge 3, 3 months of the sentence on Charge 4, 6 months of the sentence on Charge 5, 3 months of the sentence on Charge 6, 6 months of the sentence on Charge 7 and 6 months of the sentence on Charge 9 be served cumulatively on each other and cumulatively on the sentence imposed on Charge 8.
47 This makes for a total effective term of imprisonment of 6 years and 9 months.
48 I direct that you serve 4 years before becoming eligible for release on parole.
49 I declare that you have served 894 days by way of pre-sentence detention, not including today.
50 But for your plea of guilty, I would have imposed a total effective term of imprisonment of 8 years and 6 months with a non-parole period of 5 years and 6 months.
51 I direct that it be entered in the record of the court that you have been sentenced as a serious sexual offender in relation to Charges 3 to 9 on the Indictment.
52 You will be placed on the sex offender registration for life and information in that regard will be forwarded to you in prison.
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