Prison for assaulting ‘scared and confused’ young boy

Press, 8 October 1987, Page 31

Prison for assaulting ‘scared and confused’ young boy

A sentence of six months imprisonment was imposed in the District Court yesterday on a man for assaulting a boy, at the boy’s home.

The assault followed the boy’s arming himself with a carving knife .against the man because he was “confused and scared.” After a defended hearing, Judge Fraser held that there had been no assault by the defendant, Gary Earl Coulston, in his kneeing the boy in his thigh while disarming him of the carving knife. However, the Judge held that Coulston’s chasing after the boy, throwing a pumpkin and hitting the boy in the back, and then threatening the boy with an axe taken from a chopping block were not justified and constituted an assault.

Coulston, aged 28, a sickness beneficiary, had denied the offence.

He was represented by Mr R. G. Glover. Sergeant

W. P. Creasey prosecuted. The charge arose from an incident on August 4 in which Coulston and his wife called at the boy’s house' after Mrs Coulston had telephoned asking to see and collect her daughter, aged five, who is Coulston’s step-daughter. The girl was in the temporary custody of the boy complainant’s mother. She was being minded by the boy, while his mother was out, when Mrs Coulston telephoned. After hearing all evidence in the case, and prosecution and defence submissions, the Judge said the boy’s reply over the telephone that they could not call until his mother was home was a proper attitude for him to take.

However, it seemed he used quite Improper language, which annoyed and enraged Coulston. Later they called at the house. The Judge said he accepted the evidence

that Coulston forced his way into the house, past the boy’s mother. The boy had then taken a carving knife from the kitchen.

The Judge noted that the Jboy was of slight build,< and evidence was he Was sft lin (153 cm tall.

The Judge said there was a reasonable possibility that, in taking the knife from the boy, Coulston believed he was acting in defence of himself and possibly others in the house.

Such force, in the circumstances as Coulston believed them to be, was reasonable, he said. The Judge held that in his subsequent actions of following, or chasing, the boy outside Coulston became aggressive and determined to punish and take his anger out on the boy.

He had thrown a pumpkin, which hit the boy in the back, and then picked

up an axe from a chopping block, saying he wuld chop the boy’s head off if he pulled a knife on him again. The axe was then replaced. The Judge held that Coulston’s hitting the boy with a pumpkin, and his threat of force when holding the axe, were assaults on the boy.

He said Coulston had no right to punish the boy for supposed transgressions. Imposing the prison sentence, the Judge said Coulston had a long list of >vioi' c ’ ’’victir ir

previous corn,dons, including a number of offences involving violence against persons. He had a propensity for,violence.

He told Coulston that so long as he kept on offending, the Court, upon conviction, would keep sending him to prison. He said the prison term took into account factors such as the circumstances surrounding the offence, and that the boy did not suffer serious injury.