Man jailed for kicking teenage girl “the way you would kick a football”

Sunday 11 February 2024

A man who kicked a teenage girl as she lay on the ground “the way you would kick a football” during a two-hour spree of offending has been jailed for three years.

Jurats at the Royal Court also recommended that Lucian-Mihai Gora should be deported to his native Romania after serving his sentence.

Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae described Gora as someone with “an indiscriminate propensity to violence” whose continuing presence in Jersey was potentially damaging to the island.

As well as his attack on the teenager, Gora was convicted for assaulting three other people by spitting on them.

Crown Advocate Carla Carvalho, prosecuting, told the court that the 33-year-old man embarked on a “spree of offending over a two-hour period” on an evening last year, after being refused admission to the Tiki Hut bar in Wharf Street.

She said: “The doorman recognised him as someone who had caused an incident in the past, and asked him to leave.

“He shouted at the doorman, and when the manager told him to leave his body language became threatening and aggressive and he spat in her face.

“He spat at the doorman, hitting him in the back of the head.”

She added that ten minutes later, while walking along Colomberie towards Howard Davis Park, Gora encountered a group of teenagers whom he did not know, and made “inappropriate sexual comments” to them.

An argument broke out and after most of them ran off Gora attacked one of them.

Advocate Carvalho said: “He hit her with his jacket, which had a solid object in it.

“She hit him back and then he knocked her to the ground and kicked her in the stomach.

“A member of the public saw him kick her in the face and body five or six times ‘the way you would kick a football’.”

The police and an ambulance were called, and the girl was treated in hospital for minor injuries. Officers caught up with Gora in the park.

He at first behaved calmly, but Advocate Carvalho said: “He became verbally abusive and spat at one of them.”

She told the court that Gora had previous convictions in Romania and Spain as well as in Jersey, having assaulted a police officer here in 2022.

She recommended a sentence of three years.

Gora appeared in the Magistrate’s Court two days after his arrest and pleaded guilty to the charge of grave and criminal assault and three charges of common assault.

Advocate Olaf Blakeley, defending, argued for a two-year sentence, pointing out that Gora had admitted the offences “at the very first opportunity”.

He added: “He accepts and is embarrassed by his behaviour.”

Advocate Blakeley also cited character references from Gora’s friends and colleagues which stated that when he was sober he was “a nice, gentle, kind man”.

Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae told Gora: “You are at high risk of reconviction and a high risk to the public.

“You have an indiscriminate propensity to violence and you still fail to accept some of what you did.

“We have no hesitation in granting the Crown’s conclusion.”

He added: “Your continued presence in the island is detrimental to the people of Jersey.”

The Jurats sitting were Karen Le Cornu and Andrew Cornish.

Following the sentencing, Detective Sergeant Jim McGranahan said: “We hope that today’s outcome will help provide the victims with reassurance that we will do everything possible to see offenders such as Gora being brought to justice.”