The Ghahraman judgment

The 60 paragraph decision by Judge Jelas is an interesting read. Some extracts:

• The associate returned to Scotties the two dresses and bag that had been taken. The top however was not returned (so a deliberate decision not to return everything)
• Ms Ghahraman in her affidavit in support stated she is unable to fully comprehend or explain why she stole the items. She states she did not want to keep or wear the items stating some would never fit her and she would never wear or use them. (So she stole things she didn’t want, that just happened to be massively expensive!)
• Ms Ghahraman was effectively caught red-handed on the 23rd of December; it was that event that prompted her to return most of the stolen items through her associate. I accept the process of Ms Ghahraman accepting responsibility was most likely triggered by a realisation that she was under suspicion for theft. (yet she didn’t inform the Greens of what had happened)
• Ms Ghahraman describes the most upsetting aspect of the media attention was the large contingent of media who camped outside her private home for weeks (I agree this is very upsetting, as Jason Ede had to endure)
• [The clinical psychologist] is well placed to have provided an unequivocal statement of any causative links that may exist between the thefts and Ms Ghahraman’s mental health. He has not. It is not the role of the Court to make the inferences submitted by Ms Cresswell when [the clinical psychologist] himself has stopped short of doing so. (So it was the lawyer, not the psychologist who said the shoplifting was due to mental health)
• I consider a start point sentence of imprisonment of 20 to 22 months would be warranted. (So a small fine was actually quite generous to Ghahraman)

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