A Bendigo man has lost a bid to appeal against his jail sentence for violently attacking a woman earlier this decade.
Graham Giudice is serving an eight-year prison term after County Court Judge Mark Dean sentenced him in April last year, but the 31-year-old claimed the judge failed to take his borderline personality disorder into account when judging his moral culpability.
Court documents show Giudice had previously been jailed for violence against women. They show one woman was left with three fractures after he punched her multiple times to the face.
His lawyer, Mark Turner, told Judge Dean last year that he should have reduced the applicant's moral culpability at sentencing and reduced the weight given to deterrence.
The Court of Appeal on Wednesday heard Giudice had since been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Court hears of self-harm in jail
Court documents show on the morning of his 2022 trial, Giudice pleaded guilty to two counts of damaging property, one charge of intentionally causing serious injury, and contravening a court order.
The Court of Appeal hearing in Bendigo was told that Giudice had fractured his hand in an act of self-harm while in custody, with Mr Turner arguing that being in jail was harder for his client due to his history of mental health.
He told the court his client's first attempt at suicide was in early 2020 and another in November of that same year.
"When in jail he has the propensity to self-harm," Mr Turner said.
"He's isolated from his family … and his stress, anxiety and sadness are compounded by being in jail."
But Justice Robert Osborn argued the suicide attempts were before Giudice had gone into custody, and it was up to the defendant to demonstrate how jail was exacerbating his mental health.
The court heard Giudice had not continued treatment for his mental health as directed by previous court orders.
Grounds for appeal abandoned
Mr Turner abandoned three of four counts of appeal after Justice Osborn argued Judge Dean did consider Giudice's mental health but had to moderate it against protecting the community, and his history of violent offending.
"There are three bases of protecting the community — the savagery of the attack, his prior history and the [psychiatric] report that said he continued to be a risk to the community," Justice Osborn said.
"Your predecessor said that [Giudice's guilty plea] supports the conclusion there is a risk to the community. It's very difficult to come to us and say the case has to be understood a different way."
Justice Osborn said that while Giudice's mental health was causally connected to his explosive behaviour and the attack on the woman, the argument for leniency was limited because the "mental health" was linked to his explosive behaviour and the savagery of the attack.
"There is some positive benefit from treatment, but [the psychiatrist] doesn't support that jail is exacerbating his poor mental health, just that he would find it harder [than some] in jail," he said.
Office of Public Prosecutions director Kerri Judd KC told the court she wanted the appeal dismissed and that sentencing remarks from Judge Dean showed Giudice was aware of his explosive history and that he knew what he was doing when he attacked the woman.
"The judge found that mental health had to be balanced against the brutality of the offending, the history of violence, and protecting the community," she said.
The Court of Appeal hearing in Bendigo marked the first sitting of the Supreme Court of Victoria at the town's new law courts.
