Tavern burglar given 30 months jail

Press, 18 February 1978, Page 5

Tavern burglar given 30 months jail

A two-years-and-a-half jail term was imposed on Stephen John Raynor, aged 27, when he appeared before Mr N. L. Bradford, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of burglary.

Raynor, whom the Magistrate described as a “determined burglar” appeared for sentence on a charge of breaking and entering the Tinwald Tavern on January 16. He also faced another charge of driving while disqualified. When apprehended on January 17 with the stolen property in the vehicle he was driving it. Counsel for Raynor (Mr D. J. Cassells) said the other two co-offenders had been the prime instigators in the burglary in which liquor, cigarettes and cash were stolen. The total amount of property stolen and damage done amounted to sB6u. The Magistrate said that since 1969 the defendant had seven previous convictions. He had been to detention centre, undergone Borstal training, been fined, placed on probation and done periodic detention, yet it was obvious there had been no response to the leniency shown by the Court. “The defendant must realise that the time has come when a substantial penalty must be imposed,” he said. On the charge of burglary Raynor was sentenced to two years jail, and for driving while disqualified, six months jail, both terms to be cumulative. He was disqualified from driving for a further 12 months. OFFICERS ASSAULTED For assaulting two prison officers at Paparua prison Zachary Terapi Honetana, aged 20, was sentenced to four months jail which was to be cumulative to his existing term of 15 months, said the Magistrate. The assault on the two

officers, he said, was not a simple matter of a minor assault; it was serious. Both men received injuries and one of them was knocked unconscious for five minutes.

The assault on the two officers occurred on Boxing Day when the defendant had been taken to the kit locker to get his pants changed. It was when told he would be put on report for refusing that the unprovoked assault took place. The Magistrate told the defendant that he had been to prison on four separate occasions and so was familiar with the rules.

Counsel (Mr D. C. Fitzgibbon) submitted that his client had a “horrendous” list of offences committed since he was nine, and had been in institutions since 1972. There was a danger of his becoming institutionalised. Because of this he had sought that his client’s existing term should not be extended. BURGLARY OFFENCE It was a blatant, planned burglary but one which fortunately did not succeed, said the Magistrate when he sentenced Lennie Tuhura, a shearer, aged 32, to 12 months in prison. Tuhura had pleaded guilty to a charge of breaking and entering an unoccupied motel unit in Bealey Avenue from where he and four associates attempted to steal a colour television set valued at $l2OO.

The offenders’ actions were seen by the occupant of another motel and, aware of this, the five persons had made off leaving the teleyision set in the yard. In the public interest, and because of the increasing number of burglaries committed in the city, the Magistrate imposed a term in prison.