Jail imposed on daughter’s first birthday
Travis James Baillie was in tears at his sentencing because his daughter had been brought along to see him in court on her first birthday.
She was in the Christchurch District Court when he was jailed for 27 months today.
Among the list of offending, the 25-year-old was charged with absconding from a drug rehabilitation programme at Odyssey House and unlawfully taking one of the centre’s cars, which has not been recovered.
His defence counsel David Goldwater said Baillie had left the programme when his supports in the community vanished – both his parents were imprisoned.
Judge Jane Farish said he had come from a disadvantaged background, which led on to Youth Court offending and a chronic methamphetamine addiction.
Even so, she saw him as being capable of change. She told him: “You don’t have to let your upbringing define you.”
The judge pointed out that his one-year-old daughter was in court on her birthday, while he was heading for prison.
“How many more birthdays are you going to spend like that?” she asked him. “If ever there was a motivating factor, it is her, for you to be able to change.”
She said taking the car from Odyssey House was “a pretty low thing to have done”.
She had to resentence Baillie on the original charges that put him on home detention at the residential rehabilitation programme, sending him to jail with extra time for the additional offending – taking three cars, stealing petrol, disqualified driving, and breach of home detention.
She imposed a total sentence of 27 months’ jail, with a driving disqualification order under November 2017.
She made no order for reparations for his victims because it was unrealistic. Baillie already owes $22,000 in unpaid fines and reparation for his other offending.
She suggested that once he became eligible for parole, the Parole Board might consider sending him back to Odyssey House where he had completed four months of rehabilitation and got a good report before he absconded.
Category: News
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