271 Monday's Court Hearing - Part 8

Monday, continued …

"However, given that Mr and Madam Lu have only had the weekend to obtain the report, I can excuse this.If contrary evidence does come to light, this matter will be brought back immediately before me, and Mr Lu will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment, the time he had served by way of home detention will not count towards any period of detention.Saying that, the penalties that I am imposing in terms of imprisonment/Home detention are:

• For Mr Lu, he will serve via way of home detention a sentence of 16 weeks; and

• For Madam Lu, she will serve via way of home detention a sentence of 8 weeks.

If Mr Lu had served a period of imprisonment, I would have required him to serve 6 weeks and for Madam Lu I would have required her to serve 4 weeks.The only reason they are not serving more time is their agreement to this sentence and there not being any other criminal convictions for them and the reason neither are being required to serve that term, relates to the medical evidence surrounding Madam Lu and the risks to her pregnancy, and the impact on her pregnancy of Mr Lu serving a term of imprisonment.During the term of home detention, the following conditions apply to both Mr Lu and Madam Lu:

• Unless for the purpose of a medical appointment for Madam Lu or a health emergency that cannot be treated by a doctor in their home, for the period of home detention neither are permitted to leave their residence.

• All visitors, including family, except for emergency medical treatment must be approved in advance by the prison authorities, and such visits can only occur at pre-approved times.

• All staff at the Lu's residence

o must undergo searches before and after leaving the residence.

o Must be confirmed as being suitable people by Thursday this week to be in the home

o Any new staff appointed in that time must be pre-approved by the prison authorities

• Both Mr Lu and Madam Lu willbe required during the period of their home detention to wear a monitoring device, at their expense

• The Lu's must pay for guards approved by the prison authorities to monitor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, until the term of Mr Lu's home detention ends, all entrances/exits to their property.

• The Lu's have the following restrictions on their behaviour:

o All visitors must be pre-approved by prison authorities, including the times of their visits

o All medical appointments must be cleared by prison authorities

o They cannot during the time of home detention access social media and the internet, their telephone calls will be monitored, their correspondence will be read by the prison authorities.

o Unless in the case of a medical emergency, all telephone calls that they make must be pre-arranged with prison authorities

o Their agree that their financial accounts and records are monitored.

o They will accept visits three times per week from prison authorities at any time to monitor their compliance

o They are banned from any contact with the media during the period of their home detention and Madam Lu upon completing her period of home detention is further banned from talking to the media about Mr Lu's detention.

• Further any breach of the conditions or other penalties imposed results in the following:

o Mr Lu to serve the remaining time of home detention as a term of imprisonment immediately

o Madam Lu, upon her child reaching the age of 3 months will serve the balance of any time of home detention in prison"

"When she completes her period of home detention, Madam Lu, will have freedom to come and go from her residence, but she cannot take in mobile communications devices or do anything that tries to defeat the terms of Mr Lu's home detention.If she does do so, she will face 6 weeks imprisonment for each and every breach upon her child turning three months of age."

"This sentence and the conditions balance all competing views and take into account the medical evidence.The Court will provide a sanitised version of the plea and penalties imposed, along with a copy of all the terms of the order of protection for Madam Hou within three hours.The latter is done to ensure that it will be complied with."

"There will be a comment that indicates home detention was imposed based around medical evidence rather than requiring the term of imprisonment to be served in a jail but confirm that the evidence will not be released.This information will also make is clear the penalties on the parties for non-compliance and those the media will face if they assist in breaching those terms."

"Any comments gentleman?"