Jail for theft and assault

Press, 18 July 1979, Page 4

Jail for theft and assault

! Six months imprisonment I was imposed on a man when he appeared for sentence bejfore Mr N. L. Bradford, Is.M., in the Magistrate’s |Court yesterday on charges of theft and assault. Last week the Magistrate iwas told that Michael Rolland Poharama. unemployed, had, after stealing a young woman’s handbag, struck her! , about the head with a stake Ito stop her from pursuing | him. The defendant had admit-! I ted and was convicted on aI 'charge of assaulting the: : woman and of stealing her! handbag and its contents, to, a total .value of $llO, from! iher King Street flat on June! 14. As a result of the assault | the complainant had suffered; cuts and had to have| stitches to her upper and I lower lips. She had been ’ treated at the hospital be- ■ fore being discharged. The defendant had a list of previous convictions —h some of them serious —! d ing back to 1966, said the Magistrate. While acknowledging that I, .the defendant had a liquor I problem, the Magistrate said h the community, through him, I; had to be concerned noth only for the affender but 1 also for his victim. He told the defendant that, i if he so wished he could' i overcome his liquor problem. I On the charge of assault i the defendant was sentencedn

to prison for six month* tnd on the theft offence . tor three months — both terms to be concurrent. Following this term the defendant would be released ion probation for 12 months, [a special condition being I that he is to take treatment ias directed for his alcoholism. i Counsel (Mr G. H. Nation) 'said his ; .client had not started off that night with I the intention of committing an offence. At the flat he had become ] involved with the complainant by accident and from then on he had done 'everything wrong. Because he had ' been 'drinking earlier the defendant did not remember exi actly what had happened or the extent of the injuries which had been inflicted on | the complainant, said Mr(Nation. PERIODIC DETENTION A man, aged 20, convicted on three charges of false, pretence, involving $470, and one of cultivating cannabis, was sentenced .to periodic detention for five months. The Magistrate told Paul McGregor Tuffery, unemployed, that he had veiV nearly been sent to prison for his offending. The Magistrate made an order for the. return of the recovered property. The defendant was released on probation for 12 'months after serving his term of periodic detention.