In brief: A 32-year-old Jersey man who threatened another man with a kitchen knife and sent menacing messages has been sentenced to 150 hours of community service. The Magistrate’s Court heard he had been drinking and taking diazepam without a prescription at the time of the offences. The Relief Magistrate described the incident as a “significant escalation” of previous behaviour, but spared him further jail time in light of guilty pleas and expressions of remorse.
The Threats and the Offences
Rui Emanuel Oliveira De Freitas appeared via video link at Jersey’s Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, admitting four offences: possessing an offensive weapon, threatening conduct, a telecommunications offence and obstructing police, the Jersey Evening Post reports.
Advocate Sophie Lister, prosecuting, told the court that De Freitas had sent the victim threatening messages, including one warning: “Your days are outnumbered.” He had also told the victim he was carrying a knife, and was subsequently found in possession of an 85mm-bladed kitchen knife.
De Freitas told the court he had no memory of the incident, attributing this to a combination of alcohol and diazepam, a prescription sedative he had been taking without a prescription. His defence advocate, Allana Binnie, said her client had turned to the medication to manage insomnia, and that alcohol had been a significant factor in his behaviour. She added that he was now taking steps to address his drinking, having abstained from alcohol and drugs while in custody and having been prescribed medication to help him sleep.
The Court’s Assessment
Relief Magistrate David Cadin was not inclined to go easy on the framing of events. He described the incident as a “really unpleasant series of offences” that had frightened the victim, and pointed to De Freitas’s history of “emotional dysregulation” and conflict-related behaviour, as well as what he characterised as an increasing pattern of alcohol-related offending.
The court also heard that around a dozen people had gathered in the public gallery, and character references had been submitted on De Freitas’s behalf. Mr Cadin was unimpressed. “It is not quantity over quality,” he said, and questioned claims in the references that the offending was “out of character”, noting that De Freitas’s criminal record suggested otherwise. While his defence advocate acknowledged the record was “not a good one”, she argued that many previous matters had been dealt with at parish hall level and that most prior offending had been relatively minor.
Mr Cadin concluded that the offences had crossed the “custody threshold”, meaning they were serious enough in principle to justify imprisonment. However, taking into account De Freitas’s early guilty pleas, expressions of remorse and efforts to address his alcohol use, he opted for a community sentence instead.
Sentence and Conditions
De Freitas was sentenced to 150 hours of community service and placed on probation for nine months. He was also made subject to a five-year restraining order. The kitchen knife was ordered to be forfeited and destroyed, and De Freitas was ordered to pay £150 towards prosecution costs.
Source: Jersey Evening Post
