DPP v Welsh (No.2) [2023] ACTSC 347
1 judgment
DPP v Welsh (No.2) [2023] ACTSC 347
ReportBurglary and motor vehicle offences – order made to permit continued engagement in rehabilitation program – importance of connection to culture – reference to Significance of Culture to Wellbeing, Healing and Rehabilitation Report
Coram: Baker J
- Griffith remand to permit offender to continue in rehabilitation program prior to final sentence in light of positive engagement
- [10] The material from the Glen is very positive. The letter of 23 October 2023 addresses the offender’s Indigenous heritage, and notes that the offender has spent time with therapists and completed “cultural healing courses” which have “allowed him to reconnect back with his spirit and culture.” As Vanessa Edwige and Dr Paul Gray report in Significance of Culture to Wellbeing, Healing and Rehabilitation (Report commissioned by the Bugmy Bar Book Committee, Public Defenders New South Wales, 2021), connection to culture is a powerful protective factor that promotes resilience, self-esteem, self-worth and ultimately, rehabilitation (see especially at [212] – [214]). See similarly HA (a pseudonym) v the Queen [2021] VSCA 64 at [58] – [59], where the Court noted that “[r]econnection of an Aboriginal offender with culture and Country can constitute a pivotal factor diverting such a person from entrenched offending behaviour”.
- See final judgment above
Report: Report: Significance of Culture to Wellbeing, Healing and Rehabilitation (2021) (opens in a new tab)Report Judgments (opens in a new tab)See full case: 2023 ACTSC 347 (opens in a new tab)