Jersey Unreported Judgments

Inferior Number Sentencing - grave and criminal assault.

[2015]JRC251

Royal Court

(Samedi)

4 December 2015

The Attorney General

-v-

Douglas Thomson

Sentencing by the Inferior Number of the Royal Court, following a guilty plea to the following charge:

Age:  56.

Plea: Guilty.

Details of Offence:

On 7^th August, 2015 Thomson drunkenly verbally abused the victim, his partner.  She spent the night on the sofa in their bedsit, waking at 4:30am.  The defendant was awake and drinking in bed.  Concerned that more alcohol would make Thomson more abusive and aggressive, the victim poured his remaining lagers down the sink.  An argument ensued. 

Later that day, having been to work and to visit her daughter, the victim returned to the bedsit.  While she was on the telephone to her daughter in Scotland, Thomson began to verbally abuse her.  Within a minute Thomson was shouting so loudly that the victim could not hear her daughter.  The victim saw that Thomson had a kitchen knife with a 3 - 4" blade concealed in the bed.  He picked the knife up and raised it "like a dagger" next to his head.  The victim shouted to her daughter that Thomson had a knife, and then the line went dead.  The victim took refuge behind the sofa.  The daughter to whom the victim had been on the telephone called her sister who lived in Jersey.  She called the victim, who managed to answer her telephone.  The victim shouted to her daughter to call the police - the daughter's partner did so and the daughter relayed the details of the continuing assault to the police in real time. 

Thomson approached her, hurling abuse.  He then stabbed the knife several times into the wall immediately next to the victim's head, forcing her to duck out of the way.  The victim thought that Thomson was going to kill her.  She took hold of his wrist and begged him to put the knife down.  Still holding the knife, he head butted her hitting her above her left eye.  Thomson: "You're getting this either way, even if the police come or not."  The victim told him that if he put the knife down she would not tell the police that he had had it.  All of this was heard by her daughter.  Police officers arrived at the scene and were able to locate the flat partly by the sound of sound of screaming from within.  Thomson and the victim heard the sirens and he concealed the knife under the bed.  The victim went to the front door to open it for the police and found that it was locked.  She remembered that she had not locked it when she arrived home.  Two officers entered the flat and were immediately told that there was a knife hidden under the bed. 

The victim had blue and purple bruising around her left eye. 

Details of Mitigation:

Crown: Guilty plea. 

Defence: Did not intend to use the knife to injure, merely to frighten.  Thomson and the victim intended to resume their relationship. 

Previous Convictions:

26 previous convictions, including three assaults and five "assaults to injury".  Three of the assaults to injury were incidents of domestic abuse.  A further five of his previous convictions, namely three failures to comply with bail and two instances of threatening or abusive behaviour, also involved domestic abuse. 

Conclusions:

Sentence and Observations of Court:

Custody was inevitable but the Crown's conclusions were too high. 

D. J. Hopwood, Esq., Crown Advocate.

Advocate A. D. Harrison for the Defendant.

JUDGMENT

THE DEPUTY BAILIFF:

1.        You are to be sentenced today for one count of grave and criminal assault on your partner.  During this assault, which clearly was fuelled by alcohol, you head-butted her and threatened her with a sharp knife. 

2.        The Court, on many occasions has said, and we repeat, that a woman is entitled to feel safe in her home and, whilst we appreciate that this may well have occurred in the context of an argument, there is no excuse for what you did.  Alcohol is not a mitigating factor, it is an aggravating factor.  You have a poor record, some of which relates to domestic violence. 

3.        We note the mitigation available to you which, as your counsel rightly says, is to be found primarily in your plea of guilty.  However we think it is inevitable that we must deal with this matter in accordance with the Court's policy by way of custody. 

4.        We think, however, that the Crown's conclusions are somewhat high and the sentence of this Court is that you will go to prison for 2 years. 

Authorities

Harrison-v-AG [2004] JLR 111.

AG-v-Mawer [2013] JRC 116.

AG-v-Barwise [2009] JRC 182.

AG-v-Horn [2010] JRC 104.

AG-v-R [2013] JRC 162.

AG-v-De Freitas [2013] JRC 065.