Wheelbrace assault earns prison term

Press, 24 April 1987, Page 4

Wheelbrace assault earns prison term

The public must be free to walk the streets of Christchurch without fear of being attacked by thugs, said Judge Erber when sentencing a man to prison for 15 months. Adrian Lloyd Dalzell, aged 25, unemployed (Mr Mark Callaghan) was appearing for sentence in the District Court yesterday on charges of assault with intent to rob, and possessing a weapon in circumstances which showed an intention to use it to commit bodily injury. The Judge said Dalzell had a propensity for offences of violence. While it had been said that the defendant had an anger management problem, the Judge said this did not seem to have had anything to do with the offence.

A man walking along a street on the night of February 20 had been hit over the head with a wheelbrace welded by Dalzell, who demanded money, he said.

“This was a deliberate assault with intent to take someone’s money.” The Judge said some forethought appeared to have been given to the

offence because a getaway vehicle was waiting in the vicinity. It was fortunate, he said, that a police patrol arrived on the scene when it did. THEFT CHARGES

A second-hand dealer charged with stealing jewellery valued at $3750 from two Christchurch homes was refused suppression of his name. Colin David Rainey, aged 47 (Mr P. H. B. Hall) was remanded at large, without pleading, to April 30.

He is charged with stealing three rings, valued at $1350, from a house in Somerfield Street on March 24, and with the theft of two diamond rings, a gold bracelet, and a gold pendant, valued at $2400, from a house in Wilsons Road on April 15. SUPERVISION Supervision for 12 months, with a condition

that treatment be taken for a drug-alcohol problem, was the sentence given to a man earlier convicted of being found in possession of half a kilogram of cannabis.

William James Grafton, aged 39, a sickness beneficiary (Mr Mark McDonald) had admitted the offence which occurred on February 26.

Mr McDonald said that according to a doctor he had spoken to, Grafton had a clinical dependency on cannabis. Since the offence his client had been undergoing treatment at the Mahu Clinic, he said. According to the police summary the cannabis, valued at $3OOO, was found in a plastic bag in Grafton’s car, when police searched it in Riccarton Road at 2 a.m. on February 26.

Grafton said the drug was for his own use.