Sunday, December 12, 2010

Man jailed for three drinking incidents

A Blenheim man has been sent to jail for 15 months for three incidents, including one in which a woman was threatened and punched in the face.

Kevin Neil Reynolds, 40, admitted assault, theft, possession of an offensive weapon and threatening behaviour when he appeared in the Blenheim District Court on Friday.

Judge Tony Zohrab said Reynolds was playing loud music from his caravan parked on the property of the woman he assaulted, about 9pm on February 4.

The woman asked him to turn the music down, but Reynolds refused and threatened the woman as she walked past the caravan.

Reynolds confronted the woman, grabbed her and punched her in the face. He said she struck him with the phone she was holding.

The woman suffered bruising to her face as a result of the assault.

Reynolds also entered a property through an open gate and took a lawnmower in August and later that month, unleashed a "barrage of obscenities" and racist taunts toward an elderly Maori man while holding an axe, after the man refused to lend him his lawnmower.

Defence counsel Philip Watson said Reynolds had already spent 14 weeks in custody awaiting sentencing and asked that time served be taken into account in his sentence.An alcohol and drug assessment "was not favourable to him [Reynolds]" because he did not want help.

Crown prosecutor Hugh Boyd-Wilson said the assault on the woman was unprovoked and happened at her home.

Rehabilitation for Reynolds' alcohol problems should be part of his post-release conditions, he said.

Judge Zohrab said Reynolds showed no remorse for his actions, which all had a "common theme of alcohol" where others suffer as a result.

Reynolds deserved credit for his guilty pleas, he said.

No post-release conditions were imposed.

The Marlborough Express
Last updated 12:00 13/12/2010

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