A 37-YEAR-OLD man who assaulted a woman twice, bombarded her with messages and head-butted a police officer in the mouth in a separate incident has been jailed for ten months and one week.
The Magistrate’s Court heard that Luis Carlos Moniz Fernandes had shown no remorse for his actions.
Advocate Katie Ridley, prosecuting, told the court that Fernandes assaulted the woman near Sand Street car park on the evening of 14 May last year, pushing her and causing her to fall and hit her head.
“When the police attended she said she was drunk and had fallen over,” Advocate Ridley said. “She later said she regretted not telling the police what really happened.”
On the night of 15 July last year, she added, Fernandes had followed the woman from St James Wine Bar to Havana nightclub, where he hit her squarely on the nose with a mobile phone.
The advocate added that Fernandes bombarded her with messages and phone calls between June and August last year, leaving 136 missed calls on her phone.
When she blocked his number, he tried phoning her from other people’s phones.
On 2 March this year, Advocate Ridley said, Fernandes kicked the door of McDonald’s in Halkett Street because it was closed and refused to obey the orders of a police officer to leave the area.
And on the night of 12 April, while being ejected from St James Wine Bar, he kicked a wooden panel out of the door. When door staff summoned police officers on patrol nearby he head-butted one of the officers in the mouth. The officer needed hospital treatment afterwards and was only able to eat soft food for a time.
Fernandes admitted the charges of assault, malicious damage and sending nuisance messages before a trial was necessary.
Advocate Julia-Anne Dix, defending, pointed out that he had no previous convictions.
She said of the first assault: “It was a single push. It was not premeditated.”
Of the second, she added: “It was a reckless assault rather than an intentional assault with a weapon.”
And of the messages, she said: “He did not realise the effect these messages were having on the complainant. He did not have an insight into what he was doing.”
She added that Fernandes had lived in Jersey for six years and had a stable job here, so did not deserve to be deported back to his native Madeira. She recommended a community service order rather than prison.
Relief Magistrate David Le Cornu told Fernandes: “You intimidated, stalked and threatened this woman, and you have shown no remorse for your actions.
“These can only be met by way of an immediate custodial sentence.”
He did not recommend him for deportation.
