Jersey Unreported Judgments

Inferior Number Sentencing - assault - larceny - drugs - possession

[2024]JRC062

Royal Court

(Samedi)

18 March 2024

Before     :

R. J. MacRae, Esq., Deputy Bailiff, and Jurats Le Heuzé and Entwistle

The Attorney General

-v-

Leon David Chevalier

Sentencing by the Inferior Number of the Royal Court, following conviction at trial to Count 1 and Count 2 on the First Indictment and earlier guilty pleas to the following charges:

First Indictment

1 count of:	Common assault (Count 1).
1 count of:	Larceny (Count 2).
2 counts of:	Possession of a controlled drug, contrary to Article 8(1) of the Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978 (Count 3 and Count 4).

Second Indictment

1 count of:

Assault (Count 1).

Third Indictment

1 count of:

Larceny (Count 1).

Age:  47.

Plea: Not guilty to Count 1 and Count 2 on First Indictment.  Guilty to all other counts.

Details of Offence:

First Indictment

The Victim and the Defendant were in a relationship for 3 years from 2012 to 2015 and acquaintances thereafter.  On 10 June 2023, the Victim and Defendant were messaging each other, and it was agreed that the Defendant could come to her home.  He arrived at around 1am on 11 June 2023.  Whilst the Victim was making the Defendant a cup of tea, he went into her bedroom.  Once she realised he was gone from the living room, she followed him and saw him standing in her bedroom in front of her bedside drawer with his back to her.  This drawer is where the Victim put her prescription diazepam and nitrazepam before the Defendant arrived that evening to keep it safe.

 

The Victim asked the Defendant to stop and leave her home.  The Defendant turned, stepped towards her and grabbed her and kicked her legs away from under her so that she fell to the floor.  She got back up and before she had time to react, he once again grabbed her clothes and kicked her legs causing her to fall back to the floor.  He then called her a "fucking bitch" and had a smirk on his face (Count 1).  She got back up and tried to get past the Defendant who was stood in her bedroom doorway.  She asked him to give her back her medication and to leave her home.  She asked him to leave once again, and he did.  After he left, the Victim checked and found that her prescription diazepam and nitrazepam were missing (Count 2).  The Victim suffered grazes to her lower back, pain to her right shoulder and hip, arm and wrist.

 

Police attended at the Defendant's home at around 1pm on 11 June 2023 and arrested the Defendant on suspicion of assault and larceny.  The Victim's prescription diazepam and nitrazepam were found in the Defendant's home (Counts 3 and 4).

 

The Defendant was convicted following a 3-day assize trial of a common assault in the alternative to grave and criminal assault, along with the larceny offence. 

 

Second Indictment

The Defendant was transported to Police Headquarters and placed in a cell in the Custody Suite pending interview for the above offences.  Whilst in police custody, the Defendant refused to remove a blanket from his neck and his clothes as requested by the Custody Sergeant.  A police officer asked the Defendant to remove his clothing.  The Defendant stood up on the bed and refused.  The officer told the Defendant that if he did not remove his clothing himself, then the officers would remove them for him.  The Defendant then punched the officer to the face causing a cut and swelling to the officer's lip.

 

Third Indictment

On 18 February 2023 the Defendant entered the Co-op in Georgetown and stole two packets of smoked salmon and a bottle of chardonnay, with a total value of £15.40.

Details of Mitigation:

Guilty pleas to Counts 3 and 4 on the First Indictment and the Second and Third Indictments.

Previous Convictions:

The Defendant had 26 previous convictions.

Conclusions:

First Indictment

Count 1:	11 months' imprisonment.
Count 2:	2 months' imprisonment, concurrent.
Count 3:	1 month's imprisonment, concurrent.
Count 4:	1 month's imprisonment, concurrent.

Second Indictment

Count 1:

6 months' imprisonment, consecutive to Count 1 of the First Indictment.

Third Indictment

Count 1:

1 week's imprisonment, concurrent to Count 1 of the First Indictment.

Total:  17 months' imprisonment. 

The Crown sought a Domestic Abuse Protection Order for a period of five years or a Restraining Order in the alternative for the same length of time.

The Crown did not seek any order for costs.

Sentence and Observations of Court:

First Indictment

Count 1:	15 months' imprisonment.
Count 2:	3 months' imprisonment, concurrent.
Count 3:	1 month's imprisonment, concurrent.
Count 4:	1 month's imprisonment, concurrent.

Second Indictment

Count 1:

4 months' imprisonment, consecutive to Count 1 of the First Indictment.

Third Indictment

Count 1:

1 week's imprisonment, concurrent to Count 1 of the First Indictment.

Total:  19 months' imprisonment. 

The Court ordered a Domestic Abuse Protection Order in the terms sought for a period of five years.

No costs order made.

L. Sette Esq., Crown Advocate.

Advocate D. S. Steenson for the Defendant.

JUDGMENT

THE DEPUTY BAILIFF:

1.        Leon Chevalier, you are 47 years old and fall to be sentenced for six offences, two of which follow you being convicted after a trial by the jury.  Those two offences were committed against your former partner whom we will describe as the Victim in these remarks.  You were in a relationship with her for three years, from 2012 to 2015 and she told the jury that this was an extremely manipulative relationship and that you were volatile and prone to outbursts.  One of those outbursts led to you being convicted of breach of the peace in 2014. 

2.        She also told the jury that during the course of your relationship you frequently assaulted her by grabbing her top and sweeping her legs from under her with a kick. 

3.        Your relationship as friends came to an end in 2017, but five years later in April 2022 a close friend of your Victim died, and she turned to you when she felt vulnerable and alone.  You had also suffered a bereavement at about the same time.  The two of you began to meet up - usually in a public place - but she also let you come to her home.  Often, when a guest in your Victim's home, you would break things because you had been drinking.  She was kind to you giving you cigarettes, alcohol, food, and even her medication.  You knew the drugs that she was prescribed - diazepam for anxiety and nitrazepam for insomnia. 

4.        On the night of the assault, 10^th June last year, you asked your victim if she had some "calm down pills".  In the text exchanges that followed, your Victim repeatedly told you that you could not come to her flat and she was worried about what might happen if you did.  She finally agreed that you could come into her flat but she said, "You cannot steal or break anything", and she let you in between 1 and 2am on the morning on 11^th June. 

5.        She told the jury "I knew I had made a mistake when I opened the door.  He had had a drink and I could smell it".  She offered you a beer and something to eat and while she was making a cup of tea with her back turned to you, you slipped into her bedroom for the purpose of stealing her medication and this is what you did, although you denied it before the jury.  You claimed, when you were arrested, that the Victim had given you her medication which was false.  When she challenged you in her bedroom having followed you there, you assaulted her twice, grabbing her and deliberately sweeping her legs so that she fell to the floor on both occasions.  This caused her pain and injury.  You called her a "fucking bitch" and she told you to leave, which you did.  After you left she discovered you had stolen her medicine.

6.        Your Victim suffered extensive bruising and pain to her right shoulder, her right hip, and bruising to her right arm and lower back consistent with her falling to the ground in the way that she had described.  You denied both offences and you gave evidence before the jury.  You said your Victim had fallen over because she was clumsy.  You denied going to her bedroom or assaulting her.  You admitted that you had lied to the police when you suggested to them that your Victim had hit you.  You suggested in your evidence that the Victim had planted her drugs on you, which was plainly nonsense.

7.        After you were arrested on 11^th June and placed in a custody suite, officers attended your cell as you were refusing to remove a blanket from your neck as requested.  You punched a police officer in his face.  The assault was captured on CCTV and your actions resulted in the officer suffering an injury to his face.  The police acting in the execution of their duties are entitled to the protection of the Court.  This they will receive and you will receive a consecutive prison sentence in relation to that wholly unwarranted assault.

8.        You have also admitted an offence of shoplifting committed on 18^th February 2023 when you stole food and alcohol to the value of £15.40. 

9.        You have extensive previous convictions for dishonesty and violence, including convictions for assault.  You were last sent to prison in 2019.

10.     The Probation Report reveals that you still deny the assault on your victim.  Indeed, you no longer admit the assault on the police to which you have pleaded guilty - according to paragraph 9 of the report.  The author of the report says that you "do not accept responsibility for any of the offences".  The attitude towards your offending is poor and you demonstrate "no insight" (the officer says) into the impact and consequences of your offending. 

11.     Whilst in custody you have got into trouble and you are now in isolation in the prison.  There is no non-custodial recommendation made by the Probation Officer in view of your attitude.  The risk of re-offending in your case is high.  In particular, there is a high risk of you committing further domestic assaults.  You indicate you wish to remain in custody, which you will.  We have had regard to the leading case of Coelho v AG [2020] JRC 216 and we note the following aggravating features in this case:-

(i)        Your victim was vulnerable and you knew of those vulnerabilities owing to your previous relationship with her;

(ii)       She was assaulted in her home - the place where she was entitled to feel safe, and

(iii)      You had been violent to her before, as indicated by the 2014 conviction and the evidence that she gave to the jury.

12.     Your Victim was forced to endure recounting your conduct to her before the jury and we note from her statement that she has suffered an increase in anxiety and notwithstanding your remand in custody was on occasions too scared to leave her flat.  She says in her statement that her home feels like a crime scene to her and her sleep has been badly disturbed.  She is relying for support on a number of agencies including the Women's Refuge as she has no one else to talk to.  She has neglected her physical health and she feels like a "sitting duck" waiting for your release, and is concerned about you turning up at her home. 

13.     She no longer feels safe in her own home and is concerned about what you will do in terms of further contact with her when you are released.  She feels her sentence will begin once yours ends, and she "desperately wants protection from the Court".

14.     The Crown has sought a Domestic Abuse Protection Order under the provisions of the Domestic Abuse (Jersey) Law 2022.  We are satisfied that on the balance of probabilities there is a risk of further domestic abuse by you towards your victim and that it is necessary to make an order under the Law.  We have considered the statements of your Victim and indeed your response through your counsel that you do not object to the order that is sought.  You were "personally connected" to your Victim (as required by the Law) as you were formerly in an intimate personal relationship, and this is a "relevant offence" as the offence for which you are convicted consisted of more than one act - the two matters to which we have referred. 

15.     Accordingly, we regard it as necessary and proportionate to make a Domestic Abuse Protection Order for the period of 5 years sought by the Crown and in the terms sought at paragraph 37 of the Conclusions.

16.     We have listened with care to all that has been said on your behalf and we hope that accommodation is available to you on your release which is suitable to your needs.  But this was a wholly unprovoked assault on a vulnerable woman in her home.  It has had a profound effect on your victim and you display no remorse whatsoever for what you did. 

17.     On Count 1 the sentence is 15 months' imprisonment.  On Count 2, 3 months' concurrent.  Count 3, 1 month concurrent.  Count 4, 1 month concurrent.  The assault, 4 months' consecutive and the larceny, 1 week concurrent making a total of 19 months' imprisonment. 

Authorities

Coelho v AG [2020] JRC 216. 

Domestic Abuse (Jersey) Law 2022. 

Harrison v AG [2004] JLR 111

AG v Metcalfe [2024] JRC 008

AG v Withe [2023] JRC 179

AG v Sudol [2022] JRC 143

Crime (Disorderly Conduct and Harassment) (Jersey) Law 2008