“I’d die if I went to prison”

Thursday 03 January 2019

A 54-year-old, who told the Magistrate’s Court that he “can’t live without” drink and cigarettes, has been sentenced to nine days in prison after he was found "drunk and incapable" in hospital toilets.

Paul Michael Gardner appeared in Court yesterday after he was found intoxicated in the patient toilets at the Accident and Emergency Department on the evening of New Year's Day.

The Court heard that the islander was “removed from the toilets after some persuasion” and eventually arrested and detained at the Police station. He subsequently said that he had “no recollection” of the evening’s events. 

After the Court heard the facts of the case, Defence Advocate Alison Brown indicated her client's guilty plea.

Advocate Brown said that Gardner was “extremely sorry for troubling the Court”. She explained that Gardner “acknowledges his alcohol dependency” and “does express a wish to change his ways”.

Gardner addressed the Assistant Magistrate Peter Harris, explaining that alcohol and cigarettes alleviate his anxiety: “It helps calm me down… I can’t live without them basically.”

Pictured: Paul Michael Gardner appeared in the Magistrate's Court to face a charge of being drunk and incapable.

He then asked the Assistant Magistrate to impose a binding over order – where he would be obligated to not reoffend for a period of time or face a harsher sentence – or a financial penalty. To which, the Assistant Magistrate replied, “You don’t pay fines, Mr Gardner”, noting that, in the past, Gardner has left “fines outstanding for months”. 

While the Assistant Magistrate considered his sentence, Gardner added: “I’d die, sir, if I went to prison… I promise to be of good behaviour.”

Despite this plea, Assistant Magistrate Harris reflected on the fact that Gardner did not comply with a previously imposed binding over order and therefore decided that, although “the offence in itself is a minor one”, a period of nine days in jail would be beneficial “for Mr Gardner’s welfare".

In a final bid for an alternative sentence, Gardner asked the Assistant Magistrate for a “referral to a psychiatric hospital” as he was concerned he wouldn’t be able to get cigarettes in prison.

Assistant Magistrate Harris said that he didn’t have the authority to make that referral, but assured Gardner that he would receive appropriate medical attention in custody.