Chase driver apologises for danger to public
A woman screamed in fear and thought she would die as her estranged partner sped away from police with her in the car and drove through five intersections with his headlights off.
The chase only ended when the engine of the woman’s car blew apart.
Thirty-seven-year-old James Noel Green then ran off but was caught by a police dog.
At his Christchurch District Court sentencing, Judge Michael Crosbie told him that in other similar cases recently men had been charged with kidnapping rather than breaching protection orders.
“Things could have been much more serious for you,” said the judge as he jailed Green for 18 months and disqualified him from driving for two years. He will have to undertake treatment and counselling as directed.
Defence counsel Kiran Paima said Green apologised to the public for his driving which placed other road users at risk, as well as his partner who was in the car at the time.
The woman said in her victim impact statement that she had been screaming at him to stop, and she thought she was going to die. Although she had a protection order against him, she and Green had been “friends” for the past few months, but after the driving incident in January she wanted nothing to do with him. She was scared because he was unpredictable.
Green had pleaded guilty to nine charges including breaching his community work sentence, breaches of protection orders, failing to attend court on bail, his ninth driving while disqualified, dangerous driving, and failing to stop for the police.
Judge Crosbie said the driving incident occurred about 10pm on January 9, when police tried to stop him for speeding in Coronation Street, Barrington. He drove about 1km before stopping in Stourbridge Street, but then accelerated away and drove for another kilometre trying to evade police. That was when he drove through five intersections with his headlights off and narrowly missed hitting a stationary police car.
It was his partner’s car, and she is out of pocket for the wrecked engine that finally stopped the pursuit. Green told police he didn’t want to stop because he was breaching his bail conditions and feared being remanded in custody.
Judge Crosbie said Green had eight pages of print-out listing his previous convictions, and his life had been out of control.
He now had children with a third person. If he respected his children and wanted to be a decent dad, he needed to try to ensure his children didn’t only see him in the visiting area at prison.
Category: News
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