Jersey Unreported Judgments

Inferior Number Sentencing - Grave and Criminal assault - larceny.

[2022]JRC063

Royal Court

(Samedi)

8 March 2022

The Attorney General

-v-

Daniel Francis Keenan

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

Age:  31. 

Plea: Guilty. 

Details of Offence:

The Defendant committed an extended grave and criminal assault on his partner in her own home over 1^st and 2^nd January 2022.  The police were called to the victim's address after she ran outside and asked a member of the public for help.  The Defendant came out whilst he was on the phone to the Police.  He was aggressive towards the witness and chased him onto Great Union Road.  Police officers arrived in the area.  The Defendant ran away and was found hiding in a dark alleyway.  He was highly intoxicated, agitated and abusive, swaying and slurring his words. 

An officer searched him and found a brown leather women's purse, containing a driving licence, bank cards and £85 cash, as well as Co-Op dividend cards to the value of approximately £100; all belonging to the Victim (Count 2).

A Police officer spoke to the Victim, who had visible injuries.  She disclosed that the Defendant became jealous of her talking to male friend of his that evening.  In a rage, he poured a bottle of wine over her head.  This was followed by repeated violence over a period extending into the following day, in which he pushed her to the ground knocking her tooth out, punched and kicked her, banged her head on the floor, threatened to kill her, strangled her whilst kneeling on her chest, and pulled some of her hair out (Count 1).  She said he was "like a wild animal" and that she thought he was going to kill her.  She declined to make a formal complaint about the assault and told another officer, that morning, that she was scared of the Defendant. 

The Force Medical Examiner noted bruising to her eyes, cheeks, jaw, nose, an abrasion to the neck, bruising and abrasions to the upper chest, bruising to the arms, bruising to the elbow, bruising to the thighs, and that the Victim's upper left fourth tooth was missing. 

The Victim later provided a letter and witness statement in which she withdrew certain elements of her account.  She said that she attacked the Defendant and that he restrained her.  She said they ended up pushing each other and that she had started the argument that night by verbally and physically attacking him.  She stated that she bruised very easily, and that when she first spoke to the Police she was "not thinking straight".  She said her tooth was "already wobbly" and "about to fall out anyway". 

She stated that the Defendant did assault her, but that it was not all his fault and that she was "goading him".  She said that she pushed him and that he pushed her back in retaliation, causing her to fall over, which caused her tooth to fall out. 

Details of Mitigation:

Early guilty plea.  The Crown noted the contents of the Pre-Sentence Report. 

Previous Convictions:

Nine previous convictions for 21 offences, including larceny, malicious damage and driving offences.  The Defendant was bound over by the Youth Court in 2005 for common assault but had no other convictions for offences of violence. 

Conclusions:

Total:  20 months' imprisonment.

Sentence and Observations of Court:

Total:  18 months' imprisonment. 

Crown Advocate L. B. Hallam.

Advocate F. L. Pinel for the Defendant.

JUDGMENT

THE DEPUTY BAILIFF:

1.        Daniel Keenan you are 31 years old and fall to be sentenced today for two offences to which you have pleaded guilty.  You pleaded guilty at the first opportunity in the Magistrate's Court and accordingly you will receive full credit for those pleas.  The first and most serious offence is grave and criminal assault which you committed on your partner aged 47 when you were drunk on the evening of New Year's Day this year. 

2.        You had been in a relationship with your victim for some six months.  She returned home from work on New Year's Day to find you in her home, drunk, with friends.  Although she has written to the Court saying that there was some provocation on her part, and she does not support this prosecution, it is plain that you subjected her to substantial and unwarranted violence that night.  This included punching her, kicking her, smashing her head on the floor and pouring a bottle of wine over her head.  She said that she was so sore that it hurt her to breath and during the assault upon her the pressure on her neck at one stage was such that she felt she was going to die.  At one stage you said you wanted to kill her. 

3.        During the assault you pulled clumps of her hair out, and she left the house on her own in the dark, such was her fear of you, hiding in her car.  She returned to her home thinking you were asleep, but you were not, and she left home in fear again, her home, and asked a total stranger to ring the police, which he did.  When the police arrived just after 3:00 a.m. you ran away and the police found you hiding in an alleyway and described you as highly intoxicated, agitated and abusive.

4.        You also stole your victim's purse containing her driving licence, bank cards and Co-op dividend cards.  When interviewed by the police you made no comment.  When they spoke to your victim the police noticed finger marks around her neck consistent with being grabbed by the throat and although she declined to make a formal complaint against you in respect of the assault upon her, she was examined by the force medical examiner and we have seen the photographs taken by the doctor noting bruising to various parts of her body, including her eyes, cheeks, jaw, nose and abrasions to her neck, upper chest and bruising to both arms, elbows, thighs and a missing tooth.  The bruises were consistent with the account given by your victim, namely of being punched and grabbed by you. 

5.        We note that you have appeared before the Court before, but not for violence against the person since you were a youth.  We have had regard to all the letters that have been written both by you and people who know you well, who speak of another side to you.  We have considered with care the probation report and the addendum filed subsequently. 

6.        You told the Probation Officer that you cannot recollect what happened on the day of the assault, but you have expressed genuine remorse for the offences.  On the day in question, you said you were drinking from 8:00 a.m. onwards and you took a number of prescribed and non-prescribed substances.  The Probation report reveals you were drinking six to eight bottles of wine a day about this time. 

7.        In the past you have been sentenced to all available sentencing options other than custody, including being made the subject to Probation Orders in 2006, 2008 and 2020.  During your last domestic relationship, which ended in March of last year, there were two police callouts.  You have struggled with your mental health for some years, particularly emotional dysregulation, and you are assessed at being high risk of reconviction. 

8.        The Crown has drawn to our attention today the decision of a Superior Number in Coehlo v AG [2020] (2) JLR 367.  At paragraph 21 on the judgment the Court noted that there is now a greater awareness in the community of the damaging effects of domestic abuse which may give rise to long-term or permanent consequences, a general abhorrence of such conduct and the need to deter offenders and others from similar offending. 

9.        We note at paragraph 25 of the judgment of the Superior Number the reference to two observations by the Sentencing Council.  Firstly, that the domestic context of the offending behaviour makes the offending more serious because it represents a violation of the trust and security that normally exists between people in an intimate or family relationship.  And secondly, the observation that cases in which the victim has withdrawn from the prosecution do not indicate a lack of seriousness and no inference should be drawn regarding the lack of involvement of the victim in such a case. 

10.      This was a serious case of domestic abuse; your victim was vulnerable, she was in her own home where she was entitled to feel safe when she was assaulted.  You were drunk and the violence that you offered to her was wholly excessive.  On any view this offence is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.  We hope that you make use of the programmes you will be offered whilst in custody and the sentence we impose on Count 1 is 18 months' imprisonment, on Court 2, 2 weeks' imprisonment to run concurrently, making a total of 18 months' imprisonment. 

Authorities

Coelho v AG [2020] (2) JLR 367.

Harrison v AG [2004] JLR 111.

AG v Crabtree [2017] JRC 143.

AG v Goguelin [2021] JRC 154.

AG v Keenan [2018] JRC 104.