“Tonight is the night I will kill you and your husband”

Friday 27 April 2018

A woman has been banned from contacting her family for seven years, after threatening to kill her sister while a restraining order was already in place.

54-year-old Susan Ann Louis appeared before the Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday for breaking her three-year restraining order by sending her sibling a Facebook message saying: “Tonight is the night I will kill you and your husband.”

After an exchange of abusive messages over social media on 20 March 2018 - less than five months after she was last in court for harassing her sister - Louis then went to her sister’s home and banged on the door, but left after the police were called.

Louis was stopped by officers outside Aquila stores and searched, but no weapon was found on her. The 57-year-old told police that if she had had a knife she “would have used it to stab them.” She admitted she had been drinking and was angry and annoyed.

Louis was sentenced to 120 hours of community service by the Magistrate’s Court, and a three-year restraining order was imposed on 26 October 2017, after she admitted a telecommunications offence where Louis sent messages to her sister; threatening to kill her and instructing her to say goodbye to her children.

Police legal advisor, Susie Sharpe, told the Magistrate’s Court the breach was of a serious nature, as it was “not just a message but also a physical presence.”

Ms Sharpe highlighted that the threat was high risk as Louis has already served a 10-month prison sentence for assaulting a previous partner with a knife in 2016.

She called for the breached restraining order to be extended from three years to seven years, as she doesn’t see that period is “disproportionate to the risks.”

Pictured: Susan Louis admitted sending her sister a message on Facebook saying “tonight is the night I will kill you and your husband” while a court order restrained her from contacting her sibling. 

Advocate Jonathan Turnbull who was defending Louis, said she suffered from “significant emotional problems and depression that she can’t deal with herself” following her son’s death 18 months ago and a difficult early life.  

Advocate Turnbull said her psychological and emotional state had improved when she took up support services in prison, but this progress had been hindered when she left and she became isolated and unable to access therapy sessions.

He told Magistrate Bridget Shaw “alcohol makes her act in an impulsive and reckless way” explaining that if she doesn’t address her issues with alcohol she may “repeat the pattern she finds herself in.”

Advocate Turnbull argued that a seven-year restraining order is “excessive” as Louis hadn’t committed any physical violence. He also reasoned that she should be credited for the 30 hours of community service that she has completed, by reducing the prison sentence by a month.  

Magistrate Shaw told Louis she had broken the restraining order “in a serious way”, as she had broken it “in a very similar way to the original offence.”

Pictured: Susan Louis was stopped by police outside Aquila Stores in St. Helier. (Google Maps)

Louis was sentenced to six-months in prison for the restraining order breach. She was also given a five-month custody sentence to replace the 90 hours of community service still outstanding, to be served consecutively making a total of 11 months in prison.

“If someone makes a threat to kill and they have a previous conviction of harm, that becomes a more credible threat,” said Magistrate Shaw.

She added: “This time you went further. You breached the order by making contact with her, and then you went to her address and argued with her face-to-face, and that makes it a high risk.”

The Magistrate also imposed a seven-year restraining order, backdated to October 2017 saying: “I think there is a high risk of reoffending... There is a high risk of harm to your family.”