IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW ZEALAND
SC 41/2007
[2007] NZSC 67
JASON GLEN VINCENT
v
THE QUEEN
Court: Elias CJ, Blanchard and Tipping JJ
Counsel: Applicant in Person
B J Horsley for Respondent
Judgment: 21 August 2007
JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
The application for leave to appeal is dismissed.
REASONS
[1] The Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant’s appeal against his
conviction after trial on a charge of wounding with intent to injure. He had
previously pleaded guilty to a charge concerning the same offence on a separate
occasion. The Court of Appeal allowed the Crown’s appeal against a sentence
of finite terms of imprisonment on the two charges, replacing it with a sentence
of preventive detention. It ordered that the applicant serve a minimum period of
five years’ imprisonment.
[2] The applicant seeks leave to appeal against both conviction and sentence.
We are satisfied that there is no merit in the proposed appeal. The incident
occurred in a prison where he was a sentenced prisoner. He asserts that the jury
might have accepted his account if it had been made aware why he was already
in prison. It was for the rape of an elderly woman. He says that is why others
attacked him and that he accidentally wounded one of them with (he says) a pen.
It is plain, however, that if the jury had been made aware of the nature of his
prior offending there was a very real danger of prejudice being engendered.
Moreover, his account of the incident is simply unworthy of belief.
[3] So far as the sentence of preventive detention is concerned, there is no
good reason for this Court to interfere with the decision made by the Court of
Appeal. The psychological reports before that Court revealed a high risk of reoffending.
The sentence of preventive detention was necessary for the
protection of the public and the Court of Appeal has very properly ensured that
the position will be reviewed after five years.
Solicitors:
Crown Law Office, Wellington