Annual Report 2012-2013 page 28

Monfries

On the afternoon of 3 May 2012 Justin Monfries, a recidivist car thief, driving a stolen car at about 118 kph and under the influence of alcohol, struck two Canberra Hospital employees who were crossing the road after work. Linda Cox was instantly killed. Ashlee Bumpus was thrown some distance and suffered significant and permanent injuries. Monfries failed to stop after the accident, continuing on until ploughing into another vehicle.

Having initially pleaded not guilty, Monfries eventually pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing death and culpable driving causing grievous bodily harm, as well as other associated charges. He was sentenced in June 2013 to 10 years and nine months imprisonment for culpable driving causing the death of Linda Cox, and five years and four months imprisonment for culpable driving causing grievous bodily harm to Ashlee Bumpus. The total sentence, with other matters, was 13 years and seven months, with a non-parole period of nine years and 10 months. Monfries was disqualified from holding a drivers licence until further order of the Court.

Monfries was the first person in the ACT to be sentenced for culpable driving offences following significant increases in the maximum penalties available. The maximum penalty for culpable driving causing death was, prior to November 2011, seven years imprisonment, and for causing grievous bodily harm, four years imprisonment. In November 2011 the Assembly increased these penalties to 14 years and 10 years respectively. The increase in the penalties followed representations after the case of R v Creighton in 2011. In that case (previously reported upon) the Court of Appeal declined to increase a sentence imposed in respect of two counts of culpable driving causing death and one of causing grievous bodily harm. The judges of the Court of Appeal were of the view that they could not consider sentences imposed in other jurisdictions, particularly NSW and Victoria, as those jurisdictions had much greater maximum penalties for such offences.

The tragedy of the Monfries case was compounded by the fact that Justin Monfries had been dealt with by the courts for dangerous driving following high speed chases in stolen cars on three previous occasions. One of those incidents took place on a weekday at 3.20pm in the inner north of Canberra. He drove up to 130 kph going through stop signs and driving on the other side of the road. The other incidents were in the middle of the night but extended over kilometres and involved driving up to 140 kph. He had two young women in the car during one of those incidents. In all three previous incidents police and the public had been put in danger, and it was a matter of good fortune that no one had been killed or seriously injured. The maximum penalty for dangerous driving in the ACT is 12 months imprisonment. Other jurisdictions have considerably higher penalties for this sort of driving committed in aggravating circumstances. Circumstances of aggravation include evading police, excessive speed, alcohol or drugs and repeat offending.

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Allegations of sexual assaults against children are some of the most difficult matters we prosecute.

The law concerning the giving of evidence by children has developed greatly in this area in recent times and the test embodied in the Evidence Act 2011 is intended to simplify the issue of whether a child is competent to give evidence. In particular the Evidence Act provisions are designed to allow young children to testify even though they do not comprehend the concept of the obligation to give truthful evidence. If a young person is competent to give evidence about a fact but is not competent to give sworn evidence about a fact, they can give unsworn evidence. Unsworn evidence is treated no differently from other evidence.