Jersey Unreported Judgments

[2007]JRC152

ROYAL COURT

(Samedi Division)

3^rd August 2007

Before     :

F. C. Hamon, Esq., O.B.E., Commissioner, and Jurats Le Cornu and Morgan.

The Attorney General

-v-

David Robert Laverty

Sentencing by the Inferior Number of the Royal Court, following a guilty plea to the following charge:

1 count of:

Grave and criminal assault (Count 1).

Age:  19 (18 at time of offence).

Plea: Guilty.

Details of Offence:

In the early hours of 14^th April 2007 the Defendant's girlfriend, Miss Williams, was in the streets of St Helier when she came across the victim.  The Crown accepts that the victim offered her money for sexual favours.  She refused, became scared and told the victim to leave her alone, which he did.  Miss Williams then returned to the nearby flat where the Defendant was staying.

The Defendant was awoken and upon being told what happened, he got dressed and exited the flat to look for the victim.  He eventually spotted him, chased him and punched him causing him to fall to the ground face first.  The Defendant then kicked the victim in the head twice as he lay on the floor.

The victim's injuries comprised of two black eyes, with swelling extending onto the tissues covering the left side of his face, and blue bruising on the outer and inner surface of the upper and lower lips, but no long term damage.

Aggravating factors: alcohol-fuelled punishment attack in the street, involving kicks to the head with a shod foot.  Defendant took the law into his own hands.  Defendant has one previous conviction for grave and criminal assault involving a kick.

Details of Mitigation:

Guilty plea, youth (Defendant was 18 at the time of the offending), provocation (albeit indirect), remorse when he saw photographs of victim's injuries, difficult family history, no stable home environment.

Previous Convictions:

11 convictions for 27 offences, including a grave and criminal assault involving a kick.

Conclusions:

Count 1:

2 years' Youth Detention.

Sentence and Observations of Court:

The Court, despite the personal mitigation available to the Defendant, found that his behaviour had been totally unacceptable and reiterated that alcohol-fuelled street violence would not be tolerated.

Conclusions granted.

C. M. M. Yates, Esq., Crown Advocate.

Advocate P. G. Nicholls for the Defendant.

JUDGMENT

THE commissioner:

1.        Laverty is now 19 but was 18 when the offence of grave and criminal assault, to which he has pleaded guilty, was committed.  He therefore falls to be sentenced under the provisions of the Criminal Justice (Young Offenders)(Jersey) Law 1994.

2.        This grave and criminal assault was particularly nasty.  The victim, a Portuguese man, had been drinking with friends and at about 4:20 in the morning on 14^th April, he apparently propositioned a young lady as she was knocking at the door of a friend's house where the Defendant was staying.  She told him, in no uncertain terms, to go away and he left.  The Defendant was asleep in bed but he was woken up by the young lady and her friend.  He dressed and the three of them walked around town trying to find the victim.  The friend spotted the victim and told Laverty.  The victim was punched twice and fell to the ground.  Laverty, in the words of the friend, lifted up one of his feet and stamped it down upon the man's face with force and intention.  When Laverty returned to the flat he said to the others "I've just had a fight but you've not seen me tonight.  I just kicked a bloke to fuck around the corner and I think I've killed him.  I could have killed him."  Fortunately for the victim a neighbour, awakened by the noise, saw him lying outside and the ambulance was called.

3.        This is not the story told by Laverty to the Probation Officer, which was a self-serving statement.  He apparently showed no remorse and a Psychometric assessment shows that his is at high risk of re-offending.  He denied to the Probation Officer that it was a serious assault and denied that he had kicked the victim.  However the Crown's statement that has been read by Crown Advocate Yates is an agreed statement and we sentence on those facts.

4.        Laverty has a very bad record; he has 11 previous convictions for 27 offences.  There is one offence of violence against the person for which he received a Community Service Order of 90 hours from the Youth Court.  That assault involved kicking.  He has breached several Orders in the past.

5.        We have of course examined the Court of Appeal Judgment of Harrison v AG [2004] JLR 111 and having regard to paragraph 7 we can only say that the blows were aimed, they were made with considerable force (the photographs and Doctor's report give clear evidence to that) a shod foot is of course a weapon and this was, in effect, a punishment attack.  Laverty had been drinking and that may have played a part in the savage violence of the attack.

6.        We have also carefully considered the four Royal Court case cited to us by the learned Crown Advocate and this was a case of the Defendant taking the law into his own hands.  Advocate Nicholls, for the Defence, handed up to us letters which we have read most carefully.  There is a most encouraging letter from the manager of the Roseneath Centre who speaks very highly of Laverty, and one from his former place of work.  His sister has written most poignantly of him and there was, of course, a detailed, handwritten letter from Laverty himself.

7.        This young man has had a terrible life and we have spent a considerable time on this sad case, but we have to send out a message that this sort of behaviour in the streets of St Helier at night, is totally unacceptable.  We have to say that the victim could have suffered far more injury than the photographs and the report bear out.  We must send out a clear message that alcohol fuelled violence will not be tolerated.

8.        You are sentenced, as the Crown has recommended, to 2 years' in Youth Detention.

Authorities

Criminal Justice (Young Offenders)(Jersey) Law 1994.

Harrison v AG [2004] JLR 111.