Jersey Unreported Judgments

[2010]JRC007

ROYAL COURT

(Samedi Division)

15^th January 2010

The Attorney General

-v-

Paul David Le Geyt

Sentencing by the Inferior Number of the Royal Court, following guilty pleas to the following charges:

Age:  18.

Plea: Guilty.

Details of Offence:

On 15^th May, 2009 Le Geyt attacked a man who was walking in Parade Gardens.  Whilst drunk, he had asked the victim for a cigarette, and when the man refused, Le Geyt had punched him in the face (Count 1).  This offence took place only two weeks after Le Geyt's previous appearance in the Royal Court when he had been ordered to complete Probation and Community Service.  When later arrested by the police, he refused to co-operate during detention and bit one of the police officer's on the leg.  The skin was not broken (Count 2). 

Le Geyt was released pending enquiries, but on 6^th June, 2009 was stopped by police in town for making an obscene gesture at the patrol van.  He was arrested and resisted, thrashing around and making verbal threats to the officers (Count 4).  He was subsequently charged and released on bail. 

On 21^st June, 2009, Le Geyt caught on CCTV taking a moped from Minden Place Car Park (Count 5).  He then rode the moped through town, against one way streets and down the pedestrian precinct, whilst not wearing a helmet.  He had no licence at the time (Counts 6 and 7). 

On 7^th July, 2009, police were called to Snow Hill where it was reported that Le Geyt had been acting aggressively.  Whilst drunk, he had confronted people in the area, bare-chested, and thrown a bottle at one (Count 9). 

Le Geyt then hid under a lorry in the car park and refused to come out, all the time shouting obscenities at the police.  He struggled with and kicked out against the officers, and was only arrested after the officers resorted to the use of CS spray (Count 9). 

After this final offence he was remanded into custody, where he remained until sentencing.  His offending placed him in breach of the Order of the Royal Court dated 30^th April, 2009, which in turn concerned 7 previous instances of similar offending (3 x malicious damage, 2 x assault on a police officer, escaping lawful custody and affray) in 2008 when he was aged 17. 

Details of Mitigation:

Guilty pleas; youth; difficult childhood.

Previous Convictions:

28 previous convictions comprising 115 offences.  These included 18 offences against the person, 18 offences against property and 30 offences relating to inter alia the police.  He had served periods of youth detention in the past. 

Conclusions:

Breach Offences

Total:  22 months' youth detention plus 2 years' disqualification and a £200 fine or 1 month's youth detention in default.

Sentence and Observations of Court:

Having heard the mitigation particular to the case the Court decided to take one last chance on Le Geyt and reduced the Crown's conclusions as follows:-

Breach Offences

Total:  12 months' youth detention plus 18 months' disqualification from driving and a £200 fine or 1 month's youth detention in default.

C. M. M. Yates, Esq., Crown Advocate.

Advocate C. Hall for the Defendant.

JUDGMENT

THE DEPUTY BAILIFF:

1.        You come to be sentenced now for a series of offences which took place between May and July last year, and as a result of those offences you are also to be sentenced for the breaches of the different orders this Court made last April. 

2.        The Court has worried considerably about what to do with you in this case, and when your counsel said that the Court's patience was running thin, that is absolutely right.  The Court's patience is running thin and what young men of your age have got to recognise is that there will come a time when the offending will result in serious sentences being imposed.  The system is always going to win;you are never going to beat the system, whether it is the Court system, the police, the establishment of our community, it is always going to win and you have to realise that and it is going to have a big impact on the way you spend the rest of your life.  Either you are going to be in and out of prison for the rest of your life or else you make a real effort to get yourself together.  The sentences which we are about to impose now are intended to give you a chance to get your life together. 

3.        We were very much heartened by the fact that the trust which we put in you over the Christmas period was respected; that is important and that was an achievement, and we are also heartened by the enhanced status that you have had in prison, because that too is an achievement.  That is encouraging and the certificates that your counsel passed up are also encouraging but when one looks back over your record of the last five or six years, this offending has got to stop and you have got to realise that. 

4.        We have decided that, unfortunately, there is no alternative but to impose a custodial sentence.  The law requires under Article 4 of the Criminal Justice (Young Offenders)(Jersey) Law 1994 that the Court should not pass a sentence of youth detention unless it considers that no other method of dealing with a person is appropriate.  The Court's view is that you have a history of failure to respond to non-custodial penalties and that you are unable or unwilling to respond to them today and that is what you have said to the Court through your counsel.  So we are going to impose a custodial sentence but it is going to be a considerably lesser period than the Crown has moved for.  We do that because we hope that the bricklaying opportunity that one of the Prison Officers has talked to you about comes to fruition.  It is essential that when you come out you rely upon the guidance that you will get from the Probation Department and essential that you look for a job as soon as you can.  We have noted your mother's presence in Court and the support you will continue to get from her is something else this Court takes into account.  We rely on that support continuing for you in the future.  But at the end of the day there is nobody else but you who can make the decision to live a proper straight-forward life and so you have to learn to walk away from circumstances which are likely to cause you further difficulty.  That is something that only you can learn. 

5.        On Count 1 of the Indictment the sentence is 3 months' youth detention, on Count 2; 3 months' youth detention, consecutive, on Count 4; 2 weeks' youth detention, concurrent, on Count 5; 6 months' youth detention, consecutive and you will also be disqualified from driving for a period of 18 months, on Count 6; £200 fine or 1 month's youth detention in default, concurrent, we give you no time to pay the fine.  On Count 7; 4 months' youth detention, concurrent, and 18 months' disqualification from driving, concurrent, on Counts 8 and 9 the Court is going to order a conditional discharge, the condition is that you do not re-offend for 6 months from your release so it follows that if you do re-offend in that period you are liable to be sentenced for that again but we do not impose any other community penalty but it is there as a warning to you that what you did over Christmas, to go straight for those five days you must continue to do.  When we look at your record you have not had 6 months consecutively without difficulty so that is your first target when you come out of custody.  For the breach offences we grant the conclusions of the Crown in the sense that there will be no separate penalty on Count 1, 1 week's youth detention on Count 2, 1 week's youth detention on Count 3, 1 month's youth detention on Count 4, no separate penalty on Count 5, 1 week's youth detention on Count 6 and no separate penalty on Count 7.  Those conclusions are agreed but having regard to your age and totality, the sentences will be served concurrently with the sentences on the Indictment that I have just described.  In addition the Probation and Community Service Orders of 30^th April, 2009 will be discharged, so the effect of it is that you are sentenced today to 12 months' youth detention, so you will have about 3 months or so left to serve.  There is a considerable amount of trust being placed in you by the Court here, the obligation on you is to take a long look at yourself over the next 3 months and do something to get your life together afterwards. 

Authorities

Criminal Justice (Young Offenders)(Jersey) Law 1994.

Whelan on Aspects of Sentencing in the Superior Court of Jersey.

AG-v-Aubin [2007] JRC 241.