Youth who attacked teens and pensioner locked up over "appalling" violence

Friday 15 September 2023

A teenage boy who perpetrated "the most appalling and unprovoked violence on the streets of St. Helier" has been sentenced to 15 months' youth detention by the Royal Court.

The youth – who cannot be named due to his age – was involved in five separate incidents between January and April this year punching and kicking his victims, and knocking unconscious a pensioner who suffered serious facial injuries.

But the Court reduced the sentence sought by the Crown by three months because of what the Bailiff Sir Timothy Le Cocq described as signs of "a possible change in direction to the unhappy trajectory that has characterised this accused's life to date".

Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam told the Court that on 25 January this year outside McDonalds, the youth punched a 14-year-old on the back of the head, side of the face and mouth, causing his lip to split before threatening him again.

He later told a probation officer that he had heard that his victim had supplied his younger sister with alcohol and wanted retribution.

Three days later, the youth attacked a 17-year-old who he thought had assaulted his younger brother outside Liberation Bus Station, punching him in the eye and kicking him when he fell to the ground. In spite of being told that he had identified the wrong person, he continued the attack.

Two months later, in an underground entrance near McDonalds, another 14-year-old suffered a swollen and bloodied nose, swollen knuckles and bruising to his eyes in an attack comprising between 20 and 30 punches to the face.

The Court heard that the defendant thought that the victim had assaulted his younger sister, offering him the choice between apologising or receiving a beating.

On 10 April 2023, the victim of the first assault was thrown against a wall and kicked to the back of the head, face, torso, arms and legs, ultimately pretending to be unconscious so that the kicking would stop.

Advocate Hallam told the Court that the defendant had told his friends to video the assault, and that footage of the incident was circulated on social media.

An hour or so after the attack, the defendant was with a group, including his sister, in Bath Street when they passed a 79-year-old man whose hat she knocked off. The man swore at her and was then confronted by the defendant.

The Court accepted that man had punched him once on the jaw "without force or injury" but the youth responded by knocking him out, and leaving him with "serious facial injuries". Although the youth walked away, he called an ambulance a few minutes later.

Passing the Court's sentence, the Bailiff – sitting with Jurats Karen Le Cornu and Jerry Ramsden – said that the case had "complexities" which he said it would explain more fully on a later occasion.

"In general terms...we have seen on the one hand the most appalling and unprovoked violence on the streets of St Helier perpetrated by the accused in this case and we are satisfied...that this matter cannot be dealt with other than by a custodial sentence.

"We are alive however, to what has been said to us by defence counsel and the hints, and we put them no more strongly than that, to a possible change in direction to the unhappy trajectory that has characterised this accused's life to date. We note for example that he phoned the ambulance after the assault on the victim of Count 5 and we note what has been said about his engagement with the psychologist who has worked with him," Sir Timothy said.

Pictured: The Bailiff Sir Timothy Le Cocq said that there had been signs of "a possible change in direction to the unhappy trajectory that has characterised this accused's life to date".

Reducing by three months the 18-month sentence sought by the Crown, the Bailiff said that the Court wished to reflect the positive signs identified by the defendant's lawyer Advocate Sarah Dale.

"We hope that he will change his life and behave in a more pro social way," Sir Timothy said.