"The Court never regards anyone as a lost cause"

Saturday 22 April 2017

A man who described drinking alcohol as “a full-time job” has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for having “torn in two” the tongue of a man he pushed to the ground while drunk.

Jersey-born Grant Craig Milon (30) appeared before the Royal Court on Friday on charges of grave and criminal assault, theft of alcohol and drug possession. He pleaded guilty to the charges.

Attorney General Robert Macrae told the Court that Milon had drunk four cans of Royal Dutch Lager behind the Parade Gardens play area on the day of the July 2014 incident. The victim was said to have bumped into him, which he “misperceived” as a “threat” and responded by pushing the man once to the back of the neck.

Milon immediately walked away without checking on the victim, whose tongue was “torn in two down the middle to a length of 22mm” and suffered a fracture to the jaw among other “serious” injuries.

When questioned by the Police over his actions, he told them: “I haven’t done anything like that; I wasn’t too drunk on Monday… I usually throw punches… I don’t drop people on their face or anything. I haven’t had a set up with anyone for ages.”

Pictured: Parade Gardens, the area in which the incident occurred. (Photo: Google Street View)

Later in November, he was arrested after stealing £22.95 of Rekorderlig cider from York Street’s Tesco. In the process, he had dropped several bottles, which smashed on the floor.

As Police replaced his damp tracksuit bottoms with clean trousers following his arrest and subsequent detainment, an officer noticed a blister pack on the floor of the cell. It was later found to contain two 5mg Diazepam tablets.

Advocate Sarah Dale, defending, argued that the Milon deserved recognition for his “remorse” and the fact that his upbringing had been “marred with emotional trauma”, which led him to drug and alcohol misuse. This, in part, was also a result of “self-medicating” to treat his epilepsy.

This most recent conviction was a “wake-up call”, Advocate Dale said, and he recognised that it was “time to grow up” and would welcome custody as a means of doing so.

“He no longer wants to live like this,” she added.

Recognising the potentially restorative nature of custody, Bailiff William Bailhache, presiding, handed Milon two years’ imprisonment and prevented him from entering a licensed premises for 12 months following his sentence, commenting: 

“You say you do not regard yourself as a lost cause and you’re absolutely right… The Court never regards anyone as a lost cause.”