Probation safety concerns after gang arrests
Fall-out from the weekend’s arrest of Mongrel Mob members on kidnap and bashing charges has led to a sentencing being put off because of Probation staff safety concerns.
The safety concerns were raised in a memorandum sent on Monday from the Community Probation Service to Judge Tony Couch, ahead of a woman’s scheduled sentencing today on 12 charges.
It resulted in the woman, Jade Kelly, 27, being further remanded to October 5 for sentencing on 10 charges of shoplifting, one of theft, and one of refusing a police request for a blood specimen.
She remains on bail after admitting all the charges.
Community detention at her home address had been suggested as a possible sentence for the woman, but Probation raised “safety concerns for staff” in the memorandum after the nine arrests for the alleged gang-related incident.
Police allege that on Saturday a 34-year-old man was kidnapped and badly injured in a bashing by gang members. Nine men were arrested and charged with kidnapping and intentionally injuring the Dallington man.
At court appearances on Monday, they were all remanded in custody without plea to August 31.
Defence counsel Grant Tyrrell, said that in spite of the impression given by the Probation memorandum, only one of the men had been found at Kelly’s address.
That led to Probation opposing the address for a community detention sentence. Probation staff can visit offenders serving sentences at community detention addresses.
Judge Couch said details in the memorandum needed to be “amplified” for him to make anything of it.
It appeared police had found one person at her address and arrested him on serious charges, but the memorandum did not say what Kelly’s relationship was, and “what’s behind it”.
He was also concerned that the probation report prepared for today’s sentencing did not consider the charge of refusing a blood specimen.
He pointed out that the police reported she had said she refused the specimen because she had recently been taking morphine.
Kelly had a history of drug issues.
The judge said: “It needs to be explored more fully because the pre-sentence report refers to her being on the methadone programme, but there is a big difference between methadone and morphine.”
Category: Focus
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