Man jailed for carrying knife said he was "seeking revenge"

Saturday 29 July 2023

A man who walked through St Helier with a knife said he was seeking revenge on the man he claimed sexually abused him.

The Royal Court heard that Benjamin William Paton (26) did not use the knife, but admitted the charge of possession of an offensive weapon.

The Court heard that he had a long history of violence and making threats of violence, so Jurats decided he had to be imprisoned.

Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam, prosecuting, said Paton’s girlfriend came home on the evening of 15 June and found he had left the house with a knife with a 13cm blade.

She tried calling him but he told her: "I ain’t picking up the phone to you, not to the police, not to anybody."

When police arrested him, Paton told them he had planned to beat up the victim and use the knife to damage his car – a claim rejected by the prosecution.

He alleged the man had abused him as a child, but the Crown Advocate said the police had investigated the claim and found no evidence for it.

Paton had previously assaulted a teenage girl and threatened to kill her, cut a prison cellmate with a pointed plastic object, and threatened to kill three fellow prisoners and a probation officer and rape her children.

Advocate Hallam said: ‘He is at very high risk of reconviction, and high risk of violent reconviction.’

She recommended a sentence of 18 months.

Advocate Heidi Heath, defending, pointed out that Paton had said: “I am disappointed with myself, I’ve wasted a lot of my life. I want to be a normal civilised human being.”’

She said he had "significant mental health problems" and added: ‘It is Mr Paton’s position that he was sexually abused by the victim. The fact that there was no conviction does not of course mean that it didn’t happen."

Paton told the police where he left the knife, so she also said: "To an extent he wrote his own indictment."

She asked for a non-custodial sentence, saying: "Mr Paton is young enough still to turn his life around."

However Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae said: "We are in no doubt that the offence is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified."

The other Jurats presiding were Robert Christensen and Alison Opfermann.