English and Welsh Courts - Miscellaneous

IN THE COUNTY COURT AT BIRMINGHAM

		Priory Courts 33 Bull Street Birmingham B4 6DS
		7th November 2016

APPROVED JUDGMENT

HIS HONOUR JUDGE WORSTER:

THE JUDGE: Will you stand up, Mr Pearmain.

MR PEARMAIN: Yes.

THE JUDGE: Thank you.

1. You have sat there today and listened to this case. That is a good sign.
2. I know you are only 19 and I know you have not had an easy time of it. I give you credit for admitting what you have admitted today. I give you credit for putting in your plea.
3. I have had right at the front of my mind the fact that you have already spent 48 days in custody. I am going to take that fully into account.
4. The aggravating part of this is that it is not a one-off. You breached this order in May, you were arrested and bailed, and then you breached it again three times in June. You spent some time in custody, so you knew what the consequences would be. Then you breached it again in September. So I cannot just ignore that. These sorts of breaches justify a custodial sentence measured in months. You have already spent the equivalent of three months in custody. I would have given you four months.
5. You have served 3 months, so I am going to give you one month more - 28 days - and I am going to suspend it for a period of twelve months on condition that you keep to the terms of the injunction that I have just made. So you cannot go into Lockwood Road and you cannot be violent or go threatening violence to your mother or to anybody else in Lockwood Road.

MR PEARMAIN: Right.

THE JUDGE: All right?

MR PEARMAIN: Yes.

THE JUDGE:

6. If you do, and it is proved that you have, then you serve the sentence of 28 days that I have just passed, plus whatever you are sentenced to for your subsequent breach.

MR PEARMAIN: Okay then.

THE JUDGE: If after twelve months there has been no incident, you do not have to serve it.

MR PEARMAIN: Okay.

THE JUDGE: But if there is an incident during that twelve months, then you will have to serve it in addition.

MR PEARMAIN: Yes, I understand.

THE JUDGE: I have got to punish you, but I have also got to encourage you not to break the order.

MR PEARMAIN: Yes.

THE JUDGE: And as I said when I started, I have borne in mind the fact that you are 19 and that you have served three months already. So 28 days suspended for twelve months on condition you keep to the terms of the injunction. Right, you can sit down.

MR PEARMAIN: Thank you.

7. I simply observe this. If the option of making a community order was open to the County Court in a case such as this, then this is one of those cases where plainly the court would have welcomed that option. But it isn't, and that, it seems to me, is a gap in the sentencing provisions.