Court left with "no choice" but to jail repeat offender

Monday 08 October 2018

A 40-year-old who "squandered" chances given by the Royal Court has been jailed after missing community service due to drunkenness and being found asleep on a town bench, despite previous warnings.

The Court was split over which sentence to impose, but Deputy Bailiff Tim Le Cocq said Kevin McKeown, who shook his head in disbelief, had left him no choice but to imprison him for nine months.

McKeown appeared in Court on Friday facing two counts of being drunk and incapable. He was first arrested on 15 June when he refused to leave his partner’s house and a second time, just over a month later, after being found asleep on a bench in People’s Park. On both occasions officers said he smelt strongly of alcohol and looked heavily intoxicated.

Both those incidents occurred while McKeown was under a 12-month probation order, imposed on 16 February when McKeown was sentenced for a variety of offences. They included possession of Zolpidem, riding a bicycle while drunk, being drunk and incapable, illegal entry and stealing £300 worth of items from a flat, including a black motorcycle jacket and David Beckham aftershave.

Pictured: McKeown was found asleep on a bench at People's Park on 18 July.

At the time, Crown Advocate Richard Pedley had suggested a 15-month prison sentence but the Court, presdided over by the Deputy Bailiff, opted for 180 hours of community service and a probation order. Sentencing, the Deputy Bailiff had warned McKeown: “This is your last chance, do not be here again, do not squander the chance we are going to give you because custody will, it seems to us, inevitably follow should that be the case.”

The Court heart that around 10 weeks after the hearing, McKeown was found asleep in the entrance of a party shop but the Solicitor General chose to let the Magistrate’s Court deal with it and McKeown was fined £200 for the offence.

Crown Advocate Pedley told the Court that McKeown had completed 70 hours of his community service. He was described as “hard-working, polite and trustworthy”, but the probation officer said he had unfortunately relapsed and missed several sessions because he was drunk.

He noted that McKeown had had fewer lapses in recent weeks, but was still struggling to control his use of drink. Moving for a 10-month sentence, he said McKeown had been given the opportunity to break his cycle of offending but that his successes had only been short-lived.

Pictured: The Deputy Bailiff Tim Le Cocq said the Court had not been unanimous when deciding McKeown's sentence.

Advocate James Bell, defending, said that the two incidents in June and July were not enough to send McKeown to prison. He told Court that Dr Tanya Engelbrecht, a consultant in substance misuse, had recommended he received more help and support from the Drugs and Alcohol Service.

“A prison sentence wouldn’t address the underlying issue. It would be counter productive," Advocate Bell said, later suggesting further probation and community service, as well as an order for treatment.

The Deputy Bailiff said that McKeown had avoided jail in February due to “exceptional circumstances” and an apparently genuine desire to tackle his problem with alcohol.

However, he recalled that McKeown had been given a “warning of the highest importance” in February.

Explaining that Jurats Rozanne Thomas and Collette Crill couldn’t agree on what sentence to impose, he said the decision fell on him. “We do not think you have given us any choice than to impose a custodial sentence,” he told McKeown.

He then sentenced him to a total of nine months in prison, urging him to take advantage of all the treatment available to him in the next few months.