Jersey Unreported Judgments

Inferior Number Sentencing - breach of orders

[2018]JRC113A

Royal Court

(Samedi)

29 June 2018

Before     :

T. J. Le Cocq, Esq., Deputy Bailiff, and Jurats Grime and Dulake

The Attorney General

-v-

Benjamin William Paton

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

8 counts of:

Breach of restraining order, contrary to Article 10(13) of the Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010 (Counts 1-8).

Age:  20. 

Plea: Guilty. 

Details of Offence:

The defendant was sentenced to 33 months' imprisonment by the Royal Court of Guernsey in 2015 on four counts of indecent assault upon a female then aged 14 ("Miss X"), and one count of making threats to kill her when she was 15 ("the Guernsey offending").  He served part of his sentence in Guernsey and was released from HMP La Moye on 28^th March, 2018.

The defendant and Miss X had been in a sexual relationship when the defendant was 18 and Miss X was 14.  Intercourse was always consensual although her account was that she was often intoxicated and occasionally unconscious.  When she returned to Guernsey to attend school she was followed by the defendant.  While charged as indecent assault, the offences involved full intercourse.  In 2015 Miss X fell pregnant.  She was taken into care.  The defendant, still in Guernsey, contrived to meet up with her and encourage her to abscond from care.  Having continued to breach bail conditions relating to contacting her, he was escorted from Guernsey on 11^th December, 2015.

On his return to Jersey the defendant contacted a 12-year-old girl, Miss Y.  They met and when found by Miss Y's mother it was clear that they had been drinking.  The defendant lied about his name and age, saying that he was 16.  He and Miss Y spent the evening at Highlands College.  Miss Y denied any sexual contact but later that day she sought the morning after pill.

The defendant returned to Guernsey and met Miss X, who again absconded from her care home.  Their relationship ended on 1^st March, 2016, while the defendant was back in Jersey.  Within minutes of Miss X stating that their relationship was over, the defendant contacted Miss Y again suggesting she sneak out of her home to meet him.

Shortly afterwards the defendant was observed in company of a number of youths including a female aged 15 ("Miss Z") whom he was seen kissing.  Police observed further contact between the defendant and underage females. 

The Defendant was arrested on his return to Guernsey and imprisoned on 14^th December, 2016. The Guernsey Royal Court imposed restrictions on his changing accommodation, and being in the company of children under 18, by way of an Extended Supervision Licence, to come into effect on his release. 

The day before his release from HMP La Moye, the defendant met his supervising Probation Officer who gave him a copy of his Extended Supervision Licence.  The day after his release the Royal Court imposed a series of interim orders under the Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010.  The defendant was prohibited from contacting and being in the company of any person under the age of 16 (Order 2), ordered to notify of any change of address (Order 4) and to remove himself from the company of any person under the age of 16, should the circumstances arise (Order 5).  He was handed a copy of the orders in Court having already received a copy in advance.

Five days later he breached for the first time, by meeting children under 16, initially at Snow Hill (Count 1), later at Eagle House (Count 2) and then staying the night at an apartment and sleeping on the sofa with a vulnerable 13-year-old girl, Miss A (counts 3 and 7).  The defendant told the flat's occupants, who were known to him, that he was allowed to be alone with children under 16 if an appropriate adult was present.  He spent the following day in the company this young girl, again spending the night on the sofa with her (Counts 4, 5 and 8).

On 5^th April, 2018, the defendant's Probation Officer became aware that he had not been residing where directed.  When spoken to defendant lied, saying that he had not slept at the apartment nor met Miss A.  Later that day, a police officer found the Defendant at the apartment.  Several children, including Miss A, were there (Count 6).  The Defendant was removed from the premises.  However he returned later that day and begged the occupant of the apartment to allow him to stay that night.  She refused, having been told of the actual orders.

The Defendant was arrested and in interview, claimed to have misunderstood his conditions.  He admitted spending time at the flat, but denied spending the night there, saying that his Probation Officer had told him he could visit but was not to stay the night.  He denied knowing the young girl and said he had spoken to her once, when the Police had attended that day.  This was later found to be untrue.

He was assessed by a psychologist at high risk of reoffending and scored 4 on the psychopathy test (classification of psychopathy starts at level 5).  He was deemed to be of low average intelligence but did not have a learning disorder.

Details of Mitigation:

Guilty pleas, although the evidence was overwhelming, youth.

Previous Convictions:

Other than for the Guernsey offences, the defendant has a series of convictions including breaches of bail and court orders, larceny and malicious damage.  He has never successfully completed an order of the Island courts.

Conclusions:

Count 1:	12 months' youth detention.
Count 2:	12 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 3:	30 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 4:	12 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 5:	30 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 6:	18 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 7	6 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 8:	6 months youth detention, concurrent.

Total:  30 months youth detention. 

Order sought under Article 15 the Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010 that a minimum notification period of 8 years and 17 days elapse until 14 July 2026 the date on which the Guernsey orders are due to end, before the accused is permitted to apply to no longer be subject to the notification requirements to commence from the date of sentence.

Restraining order sought under Article 10 the Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010 to commence from date of sentence for a period of 8 years and 17 days, until 14 July 2026 the date on which the Guernsey orders are due to end with the following conditions:-

(i)             That the offender be prohibited from contacting or approaching, directly or indirectly, any person identified in Appendix A of the order other than any contact which is inadvertent or unavoidable, or any contact which has been expressly approved by the Jersey Probation Service or his Guernsey Supervising Officer.

(ii)            That the offender be prohibited from having any contact or attempting to have any contact, directly or indirectly by any means with any child he knows or suspects to be under the age of 16 years without the prior permission of the Jersey Probation Service, other than such contact as is inadvertent and not reasonably avoidable in the course of lawful daily life.  This to include contact via any form of social media, internet or telecommunications system.

(iii)           That the offender by prohibited from using any telecommunication device unless:

a.     It has the capacity to retain and display the history of use, and

b.     He make the device available on request for inspection by a police officer, and

c.     He takes no actions to delete such history.

(iv)           That the offender provide advanced notification details or any proposed changes of address and employment, which will have to be approved by the Probation Service.

(v)            That in circumstances where he finds himself in contact with any persons named in Appendix A, or finds himself alone with a person under the age of 16, or finds that he is in contact with someone under the age of 16, the offender has a positive duty to remove himself from that situation as soon as reasonably possible.

(vi)           Not to reuse access to his accommodation to police officers who are monitoring or checking on the restraining orders.

Sentence and Observations of Court:

Count 1:	12 months' youth detention.
Count 2:	12 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 3:	24 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 4:	12 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 5:	24 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 6:	18 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 7	6 months' youth detention, concurrent.
Count 8:	6 months youth detention, concurrent.

Total:  24 months youth detention.

Order made under Article 15 the Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010 that a minimum notification period of 5 years elapse before the accused is permitted to apply to no longer be subject to the notification requirements to commence from the date of sentence. 

Restraining order made under Article 10 the Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010 to commence from date of sentence for a period of 8 years and 17 days, until 14 July 2026 the date on which the Guernsey orders are due to end - the conditions to be reworded. 

R. C. P. Pedley, Esq., Crown Advocate.

Advocate J. W. R. Bell for the Defendant.

JUDGMENT

THE DEPUTY BAILIFF:

1.        You are to be sentenced for 8 counts of breach of restraining orders imposed under Article 10(13) of the Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010.  Those orders were imposed on you on the 29^th March this year and largely echoed orders that were made against you by the Royal Court of Guernsey in 2016.

2.        We do not need to go into the detail of these breaches, because they have been fully explained by the Crown.  We note the contents of the Social Enquiry Reports and that you are of high risk of sexual re-offending.  It appears that you do not demonstrate remorse in any real sense or empathy with your victims.

3.        We agree largely with the characterisation of this offending and your behaviour and attitude by the Crown.  You breached the orders within days of your release and we do not accept that you did not understand the nature of the orders and their ambit.  You do not have any respect for the orders of the court which in this case are made to protect the vulnerable. 

4.        We note the fact of your guilty pleas which are of real value in a case like this and we also note the mitigation that has been set out fully by counsel on your behalf, and we include in that mitigation your youth for which you are still entitled to some consideration. 

5.        We have of course considered the position under Article 4(2) of the Criminal Justice (Young Offenders) (Jersey) Law 2014 and in our view with your high risk of the reconviction and your failure to follow orders of the court and the seriousness of the offending that is before us, the imposition of a custodial sentence is entirely open to the court and is appropriate. 

6.        Dealing firstly with the notification orders we think in the circumstances that we should impose the notification order moved for by the Crown and it should be imposed for a period of 5 years, that being the period before which you may make an application.

7.        We are also satisfied that we should impose restrictive orders to a significant extent as moved for by the Crown but with certain exceptions.  We believe that the prohibition in order 1 which otherwise we adopt should be restricted to a reference to Miss X in all of the circumstances.  We think that under order 2 it is appropriate that we make such an order to its full extent, but that it should be qualified by an appropriate adult provision, in other words you will not be deemed to be in breach of that order if you are at all times in the company of an adult who is aware of the sufficient detail of your conviction to have an understanding as to the risk that you may pose to any child that is in their presence as well, and who do not themselves have a conviction which would be a notifiable conviction under the law.  We impose the order set out in 3 and the order set out in 4.  The order in 5 will need some alterations to reflect the order that we have made in 1 and we make the order in 6.  And in terms of the period, we agree that 8 years and 17 days is the appropriate period for the applicability of those orders.

8.        Turning now to the matter of sentence.  We are largely agreed with the characterisation by the Crown but we think we can make more of an allowance for the mitigating factors available to you, than has been made in conclusions moved by the Crown.  Accordingly, the sentence is as follows: Count 1; 12 months youth detention; Count 2; 12 months; Count 3; 24 months; Count 4; 12 months; Count 5; 24 months; Count 6; 18 months; Count 7; 6 months; Count 8; 6 months, all concurrent, making a total of 24 months youth detention.

Authorities

Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010

Criminal Justice (Young Offenders) (Jersey) Law 2014. 

Attorney General v G [2011] JLR Note 47

AG-v-G [2011] JRC 214

AG v N [2013] JRC 052

AG v Laffoley [2017] JRC 058. 

AG v U [2017] JRC 134. 

AG v A [2018] JRC 079B.