Ibbs v R [1987] HCA 46; (1987) 163 CLR 447 (6 October 1987)
HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA
IBBS v. THE QUEEN [1987] HCA 46; (1987) 163 CLR 447
F.C. 87/042
Criminal Law (W.A.)
High Court of Australia
Mason C.J.(1), Wilson(1), Brennan(1), Toohey(1) and Gaudron(1) JJ.
CATCHWORDS
Criminal Law (W.A.) - Sexual penetration without consent - Maximum penalty prescribed - Sexual penetration defined as various categories of sexual acts - Whether maximum penalty appropriate for worst type of case falling within each category - Criminal Code (W.A.), ss. 324D, 324F.
HEARING
1987, Perth, September 18;1987, Canberra, October 6. 6:10:1987
APPEAL from the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
DECISION
MASON C.J., WILSON, BRENNAN, TOOHEY AND GAUDRON JJ. After a trial in the Supreme Court of Western Australia before Kennedy J. and a jury, the applicant was convicted of the offence of sexual penetration without consent. That offence is created by s.324D of the Criminal Code of Western Australia, one of the provisions of Ch.XXX1A of the Criminal Code which was inserted by the Acts Amendment (Sexual Assaults) Act 1985 (W.A.). Chapter XXXIA is headed "Sexual Assaults". The Act substantially altered the previous Code provisions relating to sexual offences. The offence of rape has been deleted from the Code, but the conduct which would have constituted rape is now proscribed by s.324D which reads:" Any person who sexually penetrates another
person without the consent of that person is
guilty of a crime and is liable to imprisonment
for 14 years."
constituted rape. Section 324F gives an extended meaning to the phrase "to sexually penetrate". It is defined to mean -
" (a) to penetrate the vagina of any person or the
anus of any person with -
(i) any part of the body of another
person; or
(ii) an object manipulated by
another person,
except where the penetration is carried out
for proper medical purposes;
(b) to manipulate any part of the body of another
person so as to cause penetration of the
vagina or anus of the offender by part of the
other person's body;
(c) to introduce any part of the penis of a
person into the mouth of another person;
(d) to engage in cunnilingus; or
(e) to continue sexual penetration as defined inSection 324G defines "consent" to mean "a consent freely and voluntarily given". It is unnecessary now to consider the construction of that section. A maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment is prescribed for the offence of sexual penetration without consent (described by the sidenote to s.324D as "Sexual assault"). Section 324E creates an offence of sexual penetration without consent in circumstances of aggravation (described by the sidenote to s.324E as "Aggravated sexual assault") for which a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment is prescribed.
paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d)."
2. The circumstances out of which the charge against the applicant arose were
unusual. The complainant, a mother of four children,
had been living with a
man near the house occupied by the applicant and his wife, Katrina. Two of
her children, both young, lived
with her. The complainant was befriended by
the wife and, when the man with whom the complainant had been living required
her to
leave their house, she and the two children went to live in Ibbs'
house. The applicant was attracted to the complainant and Mrs Ibbs,
at the
applicant's request, asked her to have sexual intercourse with him. Prior to
the night of 29 November 1986, the complainant
twice had sexual intercourse
with the applicant. On that night, the applicant again approached the
complainant to have sexual intercourse.
In evidence the complainant and the
applicant agreed on the sequence of events that evening, though their evidence
differed in some
respects. After the applicant first effected penetration,
the complainant objected that it was not right and that Katrina was her
best
friend. The applicant then withdrew and asked Mrs Ibbs to speak to the
complainant, which she did. These events may have been
repeated. Finally,
after speaking with Mrs Ibbs, the complainant said: "Well, let's get it over
with". The applicant again effected
penetration. The complainant became upset
during intercourse, saying "it's not right". Nevertheless, the applicant
continued to
ejaculation. The complainant tried to push him away, but the
applicant said that that occurred "right at the last minute". The
learned
trial judge gave the jury directions which were appropriate to their
consideration of guilt either by reason of the final
act of actual penetration
or by reason of the continuing of the intercourse. The jury retired for
nearly five hours before seeking
a redirection on two questions:
"1. If consent was given or assumed and the act
began, then consent was withdrawn, at what
point can consent be withdrawn? When is the
act of intercourse terminated?
2. We wish to hear the transcript of both partiesThe jury ultimately returned a verdict of guilty.
relevant to the last act of intercourse and
particularly the reference to pushing on the
chest. This includes questions to both
parties by both the defence counsel and
prosecution."
3. In sentencing the applicant, Kennedy J. said:
" From the questions asked by the jury I proceed
upon the basis that you are not criminally liable
for the last act of initial penetration ... Your
criminal responsibility results from the
continuation of penetration either after she had
withdrawn her consent or after any mistake on
your part had ceased to be honest and reasonable.
On the evidence I find it difficult to identify
the period of the continuation after the critical
moment. It is however enough to say that it was
an appreciable time, perhaps up to 30 seconds,
after she commenced to try to push you away from
her.
There can be no doubt whatever as to the
genuineness of the complainant's distress after
the event although I equally have no doubt that
her distress resulted from a combination of
factors, your conduct being the culmination of
those factors. It really was an indication of
her general despair at that time. She found
herself in a situation where she had nowhere
apparently to turn for help - certainly not to
your wife whom she had regarded as a close
friend. She had no other living accommodation
available to her. She had a young daughter to
care for having been thrown out of her previous
home. She now found you taking every possible
advantage of her weakened position for your own
totally reprehensible self-gratification.
You continue to have the belief that by your
standards you have done nothing wrong because
there was no threat or act of violence on your
part, but that is misconceived. The new sexual
assault legislation has brought about a very
profound change in the law. It has adopted what
seems to be a different test of consent. The
other party's consent must be free and voluntary
and it is now made quite clear that the
continuation of penetration itself can constitute
the major offence.
... I do not regard there having been presentAnd his Honour imposed the following sentence:
here any violence or threats of violence on your
part. You sought to attain your ends by another
process."
" Having regard to all the matters placed beforeThe sentence commenced to run on the date of its imposition, 22 April 1987.
me, and not having overlooked the period which
you have spent in custody already, I have
determined that you will be sentenced to a term
of four years' imprisonment. You will serve a
period of 18 months before becoming eligible for
parole."
4. An application to the Court of Criminal Appeal for leave to appeal against
sentence was, by majority, dismissed (Burt C.J. and
Smith J., Brinsden J.
dissenting). In the course of his judgment Burt C.J. said:
" For the purposes of the offence now calledIn his judgment in Reg. v. Ginder (1987) 23 ACrimR 1, his Honour had said (at p 4) that in fixing the sentence in a particular case -
'sexual penetration without consent' the
penetration can be achieved in a number of ways
and however achieved 'to continue the sexual
penetration' is in itself to 'sexually
penetrate'. The offence carries a maximum
sentence of 14 years imprisonment and as I
observed in The Queen v. Ginder, 'it is apparent
that the (Code as amended) ... creates one
offence which embraces without distinction inter
se all the identified kinds of penetration by one
of another if achieved without consent' and that
it should not be supposed that for the purposes
of punishment 'one means of penetration is more
heinous than another'. Specifically, to sentence
upon the basis that under the law before the Code
was amended the offence committed by the
applicant was an indecent assault is simply to
ignore the law as it now is."
" ... it should not be supposed that one means ofSmith J. cited this passage from Ginder in stating his reasons for refusing leave to appeal against sentence in the present case. It appears that the majority regarded the Chief Justice's judgment in Ginder as stating a principle which should govern the fixing of sentences for offences of sexual assault. Although neither that judgment nor the judgments in this case suggest that the particular facts of each case are to be disregarded, the judgments appear to adopt as a sentencing principle the proposition that, "divorced from the circumstances", each kind of sexual penetration as defined in s.324F is neither more nor less heinous than another. That proposition cannot be accepted. The maximum penalty prescribed for the offence of sexual assault is reserved for the worst type of case falling within s.324D: Reg. v. Tait and Bartley (1979) 46 FLR 386, at p 398; 24 ALR 473, at p 484; Bensegger v. The Queen (1979) WAR 65, at p 68. The maximum penalty is not prescribed as an appropriate penalty for the worst type of case falling within each of the respective categories of sexual penetration described in s.324F. The inclusion of several categories of sexual penetration within the offence described as sexual assault carries no implication that each category of sexual penetration is as heinous as another if done without consent. When an offence is defined to include any of several categories of conduct, the heinousness of the conduct in a particular case depends not on the statute defining the offence but on the facts of the case. In a case of sexual assault, a sentencing judge has to consider where the facts of the particular case lie in a spectrum at one end of which lies the worst type of sexual assault perpetrated by any act which constitutes sexual penetration as defined. As Dwyer C.J. said in Reynolds v. Wilkinson (1948) 51 WALR 17, at p 18:
sexual penetration, divorced from the
circumstances, is more heinous than another. To
make that distinction would, I think, be to hark
back to notions which have, by the reforming Act,
been abandoned."
" Crimes bearing the same general description have
not equally evil content or characteristics, and
offenders also differ in themselves."
5. The view which was expressed in the passage cited from Ginder and which
was adopted by the majority of the Court of Criminal
Appeal in this case
attributes a different operation to ss.324D and 324F. Although this Court
does not ordinarily grant special
leave to appeal against a sentence merely
because the sentence is said to be inadequate or excessive, this case comes
within the
exception stated in White v. The Queen [1962] HCA 51; (1962) 107 CLR 174, at p 176
- "a gross violation of the principles which
ought to guide discretion
in
imposing sentences". Special
leave to appeal should therefore be granted.
6. The sentence in the present case may have been appropriate if the applicant had been sentenced for an offence consisting in the initial penetration without consent, but it appears manifestly excessive when the applicant was sentenced on the footing that the complainant had consented or was honestly and reasonably believed by the applicant to have consented to the act of penetration by which intercourse was commenced. An appropriate sentence was thought by Brinsden J. to be six months imprisonment. Rather than remitting the matter to the Court of Criminal Appeal for reconsideration, adoption of the sentence proposed by Brinsden J. would seem to be, in all the circumstances of the case, a preferable means of disposing of the matter.
7. Special leave to appeal is granted, the appeal allowed, the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeal is set aside, the sentence imposed by Kennedy J. is quashed and in lieu thereof a sentence of six months imprisonment is imposed, commencing on 22 April 1987.
ORDER
Applicant for special leave to appeal granted.Appeal allowed. Order that the order of the Court of Criminal Appeal of Western Australia dated 16 July 1987 be set aside in so far as it refused leave to appeal against sentence and in lieu thereof order that leave to appeal against sentence be granted, the appeal to that Court be allowed, the sentence imposed by Kennedy J. on 22 April 1987 be quashed and in lieu thereof impose a sentence of six months imprisonment commencing 22 April 1987.