A MAN who threatened another man while carrying a kitchen knife has avoided jail after claiming he had no memory of the incident because he had been drinking and taking prescription medication illegally.
Rui Emanuel Oliveira De Freitas (32) was sentenced to 150 hours of community service after admitting four offences, including possessing an offensive weapon, threatening conduct, a telecommunications offence and obstructing police.
The Magistrate’s Court heard that De Freitas had sent the victim threatening messages, including one warning: “Your days are outnumbered.”
Advocate Sophie Lister, prosecuting, said De Freitas had also told the victim he was carrying a knife. He was found with an 85mm-bladed kitchen knife.
De Freitas, who appeared via video link on Tuesday morning, had consumed alcohol and diazepam – a prescription sedative – and said he could not remember the incident.
Advocate Allana Binnie, defending, said her client had been taking diazepam without a prescription because he was struggling with insomnia.
She said alcohol had contributed to his behaviour and that he was now taking steps to address his drinking.
De Freitas had abstained from alcohol and drugs while in custody and had been prescribed medication to help him sleep.
Advocate Binnie acknowledged that her client’s criminal record was “not a good one”, but said many of the matters had been dealt with at parish hall level and most of his previous offending was relatively minor.
However, Relief Magistrate David Cadin described the incident as a “really unpleasant series of offences” which had frightened the victim.
He pointed to De Freitas’s history of “emotional dysregulation” and conflict-related behaviour, as well as an increasing pattern of alcohol-related offending.
Mr Cadin described the latest offences as a “significant escalation”.
He also criticised character references submitted on De Freitas’s behalf. “It is not quantity over quality,” he said.
Looking towards the public gallery, where around a dozen people were watching proceedings, Mr Cadin questioned claims in the references that the offending was “out of character”.
He said De Freitas’s criminal record suggested otherwise and that the latest offences represented an escalation of his previous behaviour.
Mr Cadin said the offences had crossed the “custody threshold” – meaning they were serious enough to justify imprisonment.
However, he took account of De Freitas’s early guilty pleas, expressions of remorse and efforts to address his alcohol use before imposing a community sentence.
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 knife was ordered to be forfeited and destroyed, and De Freitas was ordered to pay £150 towards prosecution costs.
