Inferior Number Sentencing - grave and criminal assault - breach of orders
Before : |
R. J. MacRae, Esq., Deputy Bailiff, and Jurats Christensen and Entwistle |
The Attorney General
-v-
Jose Guilherme Veira Da Costa
Sentencing by the Superior Number of the Royal Court, following a guilty plea to the following charges:
1 count of: |
Grave and criminal assault (Count 1). |
1 count of: |
Breach of notification requirements, contrary to Article 6(14)(a) of the Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010 (Count 2). |
Age: 21.
Plea: Guilty.
Details of Offence:
Around midday on 23 June 2024, the police attended Queen's Avenue, St Helier after receiving a call about a group of youths fighting in the street. No disturbance or fight was observed when police arrived.
Later that afternoon, a doctor from the Emergency Department called the police to report that a man with facial injuries had been assaulted and wished to make a formal complaint.
The victim stated that he had received threatening messages from the defendant. The victim suggested they meet in person to talk.
The victim went to an address he believed was the home address of the defendant. Shortly after, the defendant arrived at the scene. Without any warning, the defendant approached and hit the victim to the left side of his face with the 'heel' of his right hand, causing him to drop to the ground. He then pushed his shod foot to the side of the victim's head with moderate force (Count 1). The victim had purple bruising to the left eye as well as swelling and tenderness to the left eyebrow region, with tenderness to the left side and back of the head.
Attempts were made by the police to arrest the defendant over the following two weeks. The defendant deliberately evaded arrest. At the time of the assault, the defendant was subject to notification requirements under the Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010. Under these requirements, the defendant must notify an authorized officer of any change of home address. The defendant had moved from his registered address prior to the assault, and he deliberately failed to update the police of his new address (Count 2).
These offences placed the defendant in breach of a Community Service order and Probation order imposed by the Royal Court in March 2024 following an appeal against a Magistrate's Court conviction for sex offences in November 2023. At the time of sentencing the defendant had completed two-thirds of the community service order.
Details of Mitigation:
The defendant had the benefit of a guilty plea which was entered on a basis. The basis was not accepted by the Prosecution. However, the Assistant Magistrate determined that the basis did not make a material difference to the sentence before sending the case to the Royal Court.
The defendant had the benefit of youth due to being aged 20 on the date of the commission of the new offences.
Previous Convictions:
Previous convictions for conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace, common assault, causing a breach of the peace by fighting and a sex offence.
Conclusions:
Count 1: |
11 months' imprisonment. |
Count 2: |
1 month imprisonment, consecutive to Count 1. |
Breach of Community Service Order: 2 months' imprisonment, consecutive to Counts 1 and 2.
Total: 14 months' imprisonment.
Sentence and Observations of Court:
Count 1: |
9 months' imprisonment. |
Count 2: |
1 month imprisonment: consecutive to Count 1. |
Breach of Community Service Order: 2 months' imprisonment: consecutive to Counts 1 and 2.
Total: 12 months' imprisonment.
C. L. G. Carvalho, Crown Advocate.
Advocate G. F. Herold-Howes for the Defendant.
JUDGMENT
THE DEPUTY BAILIFF:
1. Jose Costa, you are 21 years old and committed these offences when you were aged 20.
2. You were involved in a fight in a public place in the early afternoon in St Helier, on the 23 June last year. Your victim required hospital treatment as a consequence of your assault upon him, which you boasted about by posting a photograph of him after you assaulted him on social media. Your victim was another man aged 23.
3. Prior to the assault you received confrontational and aggressive messages from your victim, arising in part from your previous conviction for a sexual offence and his misunderstanding as to the terms of the court's order. Having received these confrontational messages and knowing that your victim was standing outside your mother's house, you went to your mother's house in a motor car.
4. When you saw your victim you lost your temper, got out of your car and hit him on the left-hand side of his face with the heel of your right hand, causing your victim to fall to the ground. There, you used your shod foot to push or kick your victim, making contact with the side of his head, and you did so with moderate force. When your victim got to his feet, you chased him until he reached a nearby roundabout.
5. The Crown is quite right to describe this as a deliberate assault with force with you, in effect, kicking your victim in the head. The injuries he sustained consisted of deep bruising to his left eye and the side of his face as well as swelling and tenderness in the area of his left ear.
6. We agree with the Crown's observation that the fact that your victim sustained no permanent injuries, in particular to his left eye, is a consequence of good fortune rather than good judgement on your part.
7. We endorse previous comments of this Court that a person who kicks or stamps on a victim's head with shod feet commits a serious assault, equivalent to an assault with a weapon.
8. You have previous convictions for violence including convictions for common assault and breach of the peace by fighting in 2021 and 2023.
9. The second offence on the Indictment arises from your conviction for a sexual offence in 2023, and your subsequent re-conviction for the same offence on appeal in the Royal Court, which led to you to being subjected to notification and restraining orders under the terms of the Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010. The notification requirements under that Law oblige you to notify the police of a change of home address at least 24 hours before the change and, if not possible, as soon as reasonably practicable and in any event within 24 hours of the change of address.
10. In this case, the police managed to track you down on 8 July 2024 to speak to you about the assault, as a visit to the address that you were supposed to be occupying on 2 July 2024 indicated that you had left those premises. The police found that you were living elsewhere and that you were in breach of the notification requirements.
11. When you were interviewed by the police on 8 July you said that you had moved out of your address because you had an argument with your girlfriend at the time. You said that you were aware that you had failed to comply with the notification requirements, but you did so because you were in trouble as a consequence of the assault.
12. As to the assault, you made admissions to the police at interview. You initially pleaded not guilty to the assault, the main Count on the Indictment when you appeared before the Magistrate's Court on 15 August last year. On that occasion you pleaded guilty to Count 2, the offence in relation to failing to notify your new address.
13. You ultimately pleaded guilty to Count 1 (the offence of assault) on 8 October 2024 and as the guilty plea was entered at the Magistrate's Court, we have decided to give you full credit for that plea of guilty.
14. Your offending puts you in breach of the community service order imposed by this Court in March 2024 in relation to a sexual offence against a child. You were ordered to perform 120 hours of community service, which the Court said was the equivalent of a six-month period of youth detention. You have completed just under two-thirds of that order leaving, 45 hours to complete which is, in the circumstances, the equivalent of a two-month period of youth detention. You remain subject for notification and restraining orders in relation to that sexual offence.
15. On usual principles, we should today pass a consecutive sentence in respect of the outstanding community hours and the length of the sentence should reflect the number of hours outstanding.
16. We have considered the Pre-Sentence Report in your case, which does not make positive reading. You told the Probation Officer that you acted in self-defence when committing the assault, when you plainly did not, and that is in any event inconsistent with your plea of guilty. You express no remorse for the offence that you committed.
17. You also do not regret committing the offence at Count 2, and appear to regard yourself as justified in failing to give the police your new address. You even refused to give the new address to the Probation Officer, which led to you being arrested outside the Probation Office at the end of your discussion with the Probation Officer.
18. As to the victim of your assault, you said "that if he came near your mother's house again then you would assault him again". You demonstrate little insight into your offending. Further, you have said "that if you receive a custodial sentence today then your victim will be assaulted again by your friends."
19. Although you have attended most of your probation appointments, the Probation Officer described your engagement as being "superficial at best," arising from your failure to accept your guilt in relation to the sexual offence you committed which, compounds your failure to accept your guilt in relation to the assault that you committed for which you will be dealt with today.
20. It appears you have not worked for some time. The Probation Officer's suggestions to you regarding helping you seeking employment were dismissed by you. You claim you have recently found work as a window cleaner, although this has not yet been verified and today your counsel says there is no evidence to support what you say.
21. You are at high risk of re-conviction and present a medium risk of serious harm to certain members of the community, including domestic partners and children. You are in breach of a probation order by virtue of your offending. As to the community service, you say you wish you had never appealed your conviction 2023 which resulted in the Court imposing, at your request, probation and community service orders, as had you not appealed you would by now have been released from the custodial sentence that you were given by the Magistrate in 2023.
22. The Probation Officer is not convinced that a further period of probation and community service will reduce the risk of offending in your case.
23. We accept that even though you are now aged 21 we should, bearing in mind the fact that you committed the offences on the Indictment when you were 20, sentence you as if you had been sentenced at the age 20 and not 21. Nonetheless, we are satisfied that the totality of the offending in this case is so serious that a non-custodial sentence cannot be justified.
24. We have reduced the Crown's conclusions on Count 1 to reflect further your age and the provocation that you were offered by the victim. But we cannot overlook the seriousness of the offending and the attitude you have to the assault, which you still deny and do not regret, the failure to provide your address, which you do not regret and in relation to the community service that we must re-sentence you for, the fact that you still do not accept your guilt in relation to the sexual assault on a child.
25. The sentences we impose are as follows:
(i) Count 1: 9 months' imprisonment.
(ii) Count 2: 1 month imprisonment, consecutive.
(iii) In relation to the breach of community service 2 months' imprisonment, consecutive.
26. We revoke the outstanding order, and the total sentence is 12 months' imprisonment.
27. The restraining orders and other orders imposed by the Court in relation to the sexual offence will continue.
28. We have considered the question of your deportation with care, and we reserve the right to expand upon these reasons when our judgment is published in due course. As to the first limb of the test in AG v Camacho [2008] JRC182, there is no doubt that your continued presence in the Island is detrimental to the people of Jersey.
29. You have committed offences of violence, a sexual offence and you have defied court orders. You have not worked and made little or no contribution to the Island. Living in Jersey is a privilege, and you feel free to ignore the laws of the Island. We simply do not have enough information to find, nonetheless, that your deportation would be disproportionate to the rights to family life of you and your family - your family in Jersey. We do not have the information that we need in relation to you and your close and extended family both here and in Madeira, in order to reach a conclusion on this issue. We note that you have no children and you are not in a relationship. Indeed your last relationship, which was described in the Probation Report as 4-year on off relationship with a woman, ended with the woman being supported by the Jersey Domestic Abuse Service.
30. It is said that you are close to your mother and to your half-sister. You should be in no doubt that if you were to offend again, then this Court would expect on that occasion to have sufficient material before it, particularly in relation to your connection with your family in Jersey and your wider family in Maderia to make a definitive finding, as to whether or not a recommendation for deportation should be made by the Court. We are not in that position today. The fact that we are unable to make a recommendation for your deportation today will not prevent the Minister at the end of your sentence from deciding that you ought to be deported if that is the view that she takes at the time.
Authorities
Sex Offenders (Jersey) Law 2010
AG v Cameron [2008] JRC182
Camacho v AG [2007] JLR462
AG v Nafkha [2000] 86
Criminal Justice (Community Service Orders) (Jersey) Law 2001
Criminal Justice (Young Offenders) (Jersey) Law 2014