Stabbing brings 11 years jail

Press, 24 June 1986, Page 31

Stabbing brings 11 years jail

PA Palmerston North A man who wore a floral dress when he stabbed a woman in an Aokautere market garden in March has been jailed for 11 years by Mr Justice Heron in the Palmerston North High Court. Barry William Agent, aged 39, a sickness beneficiary, had originally pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted murder.

The charge was withdrawn at a subsequent appearance and replaced with wounding with intent to cause greivous bodily harm, to which Agent pleaded guilty.

Defence counsel, Mr Les Atkins, referred to medical reports that listed Agent’s limited intellectual capacity, his lack of social development and the real possibility of mental illness.

Dr Mason Durie’s report said Agent lacked normal control, and his personality left him vulnerable to further offending.

Mr Atkins submitted that Agent should be sent to jail, rather than to a mental institution, as it was wrong to presume that there was no prospect of rehabilitation. For the Crown, Mr Hugh Williams said Agent was a danger to the community and women in particular. He referred to Agent’s convictions which included an indecent assault on a woman aged 88 and assault on a woman riding a bicycle, and a recently completed sevenyear sentence for assault on a woman at an isolated house with intent to cause rape. Agent’s assault on the woman at the Aokautere

market garden was sexually motivated, said Mr Williams. His Honour said the requirement for public safety was a fundamental concern.

He referred to Agent’s previous offences, and noted that he had declined chemical treatment for the problem. It was open to the superintendent of the penal institution to make application for Agent’s committment to a mental institution, said His Honour.

\ A probation report described Agent as the most predictably dangerous person the probation officer had come across in a long period. In spite of years of treatment, there was an increasing tendency towards violence in Agent’s offending, said the report.