$8000 damage payment ordered for shooting spree
Two men have paid dearly for their paintball-and-pellet shooting spree across Christchurch, with damage payments totalling almost $8000 ordered at their sentencing.
They were given sentences of six months of community detention that will keep them home in the evenings, as well as community work, and disqualification from driving.
Christchurch District Court Judge Alistair Garland told them: “You sought to entertain yourselves at the expense of others. You gave no thought to the cost of repairing the damage.”
He was concerned about the danger caused when the pair fired metal pellets that smashed windows across the city.
The pair of 23-year-olds drove around the city firing hundreds of paintball shots, and also firing .177 calibre shots from a pellet gun. There were three other friends in the vehicle on one of the shooting sprees.
Cory James Shelton, a digger operator, did the shooting and Jamie Jacob Parker, an engineer, did the driving.
The offending took place on Friday June 7 and Saturday June 8, and included shots at bus shelters, shop windows, road signs, and billboards. Their shooting alarmed diners at a restaurant when they struck the front of the building, and they hit a cyclist in the hand. The pellets smashed a window in a car which was being driven at the time, and damaged cars in car yards.
Two drivers phoned the police and one followed the pair, until they sped off.
They had admitted representative charges of intentional damage, recklessly discharging an airgun, and and wilful damage.
Defence counsel Kerry Cook, who spoke for Parker, said it was “boorish behaviour without forethought of the consequences”. The risks had since been described to both men by the police.
Parker, who did factory work, had saved up to pay for the damage and had brought to court a bank cheque for $3986 to pay his half share.
For Shelton, Richard McGuire said his client had attended a restorative justice conference with one of the victims. He had considerable remorse for his offending. Shelton had commented: “If I could change anything in my life, I would change these two days. It is the worst thing I have done.”
He said Shelton offered to pay his share of the reparations at $25 a week. He had the prospect of work but the employer wished to await the outcome of the sentencing.
Shelton also faced sentencing for his second wheel-spinning conviction and was given an extra six months disqualification for that.
Shelton was ordered to do 300 hours of community work, but because Parker had already paid his share of the damage, he received a 200-hour sentence.
Reparation orders totalling almost $8000 were made against both of them. “That is a substantial amount of damage and loss that you caused to others,” said Judge Garland.
Category: Focus
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