A 26-YEAR-OLD man armed with a knife who said he was seeking revenge on the man he claimed sexually abused him has been jailed for 18 months.
Benjamin William Paton walked miles from his home in St Helier towards the home of the man, the Royal Court heard yesterday.
Paton did not use the five-inch knife, but admitted the charge of possession of an offensive weapon. The court heard that he had a long history of violence and making threats of violence, with Jurats deciding he had to be put behind bars.
Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam, prosecuting, said Paton’s girlfriend, with whom he lived, came home on the evening of 15 June and found he was not there and had taken a knife with a 13cm blade.
She tried calling him but he said: ‘I ain’t picking up the phone to you, not to the police, not to anybody.’
She alerted the States police and, when Paton was arrested, he told them he had planned to beat up the victim and use the knife to damage his car – a claim rejected by the prosecution.
He alleged the man had abused him as a child, but the advocate said the police had investigated the claim and found no evidence for it.
Advocate Hallam said that in the past Paton had been convicted of indecently assaulting a teenage girl and threatening to kill her, cutting his prison cellmate with a pointed plastic object, threatening to kill three fellow prisoners and a probation officer, and threatening to rape the probation officer’s children.
He also had convictions for breaching restraining orders, and Advocate Hallam said: ‘He is at very high risk of reconviction and high risk of violent reconviction.’
She recommended a sentence of 18 months.
Advocate Heidi Heath, defending, pointed out that Paton had turned 26 that day, and said: ‘He has spent many of his birthdays and Christmases in prison.
‘He says: “I am disappointed with myself. I’ve wasted a lot of my life. I want to be a normal civilised human being.”
‘He has significant mental-health issues, which are attributed in part to his difficult childhood.’
She added: ‘It is Mr Paton’s position that he was sexually abused by the victim.
‘The fact that there was no conviction does not of course mean that it didn’t happen.’
Paton had discarded the knife and told the police where it was, so she pointed out: ‘To an extent he wrote his own indictment.’
She said: ‘Mr Paton is young enough still to turn his life around,’ and asked for a non-custodial sentence.
But Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae said: ‘We are in no doubt that the offence is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.’
The Jurats presiding were Robert Christensen and Alison Opfermann.
