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Jersey Unreported Judgments
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Jersey Unreported Judgments >> AG v Dominguez [2020] JRC 010 (17 January 2020)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/je/cases/UR/2020/2020_010.html
Cite as: [2020] JRC 10, [2020] JRC 010
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Before : |
R. J. MacRae, Esq., Deputy Bailiff and Jurats Blampied and Hughes. |
The Attorney General
-v-
Ismael Luna Dominguez
Sentencing by the Inferior Number of the Royal Court, following guilty pleas to the following charges:
First Indictment
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1 count of: |
Common assault (Count 2). |
|
1 count of: |
Grave and criminal assault (Count 5). |
Second Indictment
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1 count of: |
Attempting to pervert the course of justice (Count 1). |
Age: 29.
Plea: Guilty.
Details of Offence:
The defendant and victim have been in a relationship for the past two years and moved to Jersey together in early 2019.
First Indictment
On 19th July, 2019, (Count 2) the defendant held his victim against the wall in the flat during an argument. He assaulted her by pushing his head against hers causing reddening.
On 18th August, 2019, the defendant held the victim's arm over a cooker hob. The hob was not on at the time but the defendant accepted that the victim found the incident frightening.
Later that day, the victim locked the defendant out of the flat, owing to his conduct towards her.
On the following day, 19th August, 2019, (Count 5) the defendant and the victim argued. The defendant pushed the victim onto a bed, the defendant covered the victim's mouth with his hands in order to stop her shouting and threw a blanket over her. Through the blanket he bit the victim on the right side of her back causing bruising and a graze. Whilst assaulting the victim, the defendant told the victim that he hated her.
After the assault the defendant tried to prevent the victim from going to work. However the victim did go to work. Whilst at work she became upset and told her manager that she had been assaulted. Her manager took her to the Police Station.
The Victim was taken by Ambulance to the Accident and Emergency Department. DC Le Maistre attended at A&E and recorded a statement of complaint from the victim.
Second Indictment
On first appearance before the Magistrate's Court, the Magistrate made a request of the prison that no contact be allowed between the defendant and the victim. Despite this he made several attempts to make direct contact with the victim and also several attempts to make indirect contact.
The direct contact involved the defendant writing a letter to the victim and sending it to her place of work and, on two occasions, phoning the victim at her place of work (although he did not speak to the victim on either occasion).
The indirect contact involved the defendant asking his mother to contact the victim and asking her to drop the charges against him.
Details of Mitigation:
Guilty pleas
Previous Convictions:
The defendant has previous convictions from Spain for theft using forcible means from 2012.
Conclusions:
First Indictment
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Count 2: |
3 months' imprisonment. |
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Count 5: |
15 months' imprisonment, concurrent. |
Second Indictment
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Count 1: |
15 months' imprisonment, consecutive to the First Indictment. |
Total: 30 months' imprisonment.
Recommendation for deportation sought.
Sentence and Observations of Court:
First Indictment
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Count 2: |
3 months' imprisonment. |
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Count 5: |
12 months' imprisonment, concurrent. |
Second Indictment
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Count 1: |
12 months' imprisonment, consecutive to the First Indictment. |
Total: 24 months' imprisonment.
Recommendation for deportation made.
R. C. P. Pedley Esq., Crown Advocate.
Advocate J. W. R. Bell for the Defendant.
JUDGMENT
THE DEPUTY BAILIFF:
1. Mr Dominguez, you are 29 years old and you have pleaded guilty to two offences of assault and an offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice. You have no relevant previous convictions and none for violence.
2. Your victim on Counts 2 and 5 was your girlfriend who was then 20 years old, and you had been seeing her for some 2 years at the time. Your relationship with her was a violent one. She said that your behaviour got worse as time went on, and on 19th July, 2019, Count 2, you held her head against a wall in the home you shared, pushing your head against hers and causing hers to redden. A month later on, 18th August, you held her arm over a cooker hob, that was not on at the time, in order to frighten her. On the next day, Count 5 on the Indictment, during an argument you put her on the bed, and bit her on the back through a blanket causing her injury. At the same time as you did this, you put your hand over her mouth to stop her shouting and you told her that you "hated" her. You then tried to stop her going to work, presumably to prevent her from telling anyone about your conduct. In fact she told her manager, he told the police, and the police when they arrived, described your victim as being "in a great deal of visible pain." They were so concerned that they arranged for an ambulance to take her to the hospital.
3. You did make some admissions in interview, but your conduct after you were charged and remanded in custody is equally serious. During September of 2019, even though the Magistrate had warned you to have no contact with your victim, and you knew that you should not contact her, you made various attempts to get your victim to withdraw her complaint. Indeed she tried to withdraw her complaint. You wrote her a letter, you made phone calls to your mother trying to get her to contact your victim. This was a sustained attempt to pervert the course of justice and we have seen the correspondence, the letter you wrote to your victim.
4. The Social Enquiry Report says that although you are at low risk of general reconviction you present as a moderate to high risk in a domestic setting. So you present a general danger to women with whom you have a relationship.
5. We give you full credit for you guilty pleas and the absence of previous convictions for violence. But domestic violence, particularly when it is repeated on the same victim, in her home, is so serious that only custody is warranted. And to repeatedly attempt to prevent a victim from giving a truthful account of such abuse is very serious too. Perpetrators of domestic abuse must understand that attempts to intimidate or persuade their victims not to give evidence will be dealt with severely by the courts.
6. We have considered the Crown's conclusions and do not feel they give appropriate credit for your guilty plea, and therefore they are reduced to some extent.
7. On Count 2 the sentence of the Court is 3 months' imprisonment. On Count 5, 12 months' imprisonment concurrent, and on the Second Indictment, 12 months' imprisonment consecutive making a total of 24 months' imprisonment.
8. We now turn to consider the question of deportation. The Crown invites the Court to make a recommendation for deportation today. The test has two limbs. The first requires the Court to consider if your presence is to the public detriment or, to put it in other terms, not conducive to the public good. We regard that test as being passed. You arrived in Jersey in April 2019 and just 3 months' later you were committing an offence of domestic abuse, which you repeated by committing a further offence. As to the second limb of the test, the Court is required to balance the interests of a community with the interests of others who may be affected by the order, particularly the Article 8 rights of innocent third parties. Here we focus on your victim, your girlfriend, who wishes to resume a relationship with you in Jersey. But she has no dependents here and may follow you if she wishes. You met elsewhere, in England, and we do not feel that her Article 8 rights outweigh the interests of the community at large.
9. Accordingly we make the recommendation for deportation that has been sought.
Authorities
Whelan - Aspects of Sentencing in the Superior Courts of Jersey