Dunedin District Court

‘‘IT’S like the adage of the horse. You can take the horse to water but you can’t make it drink,’’ Judge Kevin Phillips said sentencing a man in the Dunedin District Court yesterday.

Time after time, Junior Ben Thompson (42), of Dunedin, had rejected assistance. He was effectively signing his own death warrant, the judge said.

Thompson had been convicted of trespassing on The Warehouse, unlawfully interfering with two vehicles, and offensive behaviour, on February 10.

Reviewing the facts, the judge said Thompson was intoxicated and acting suspiciously in The Warehouse in Maclaggan St, about 11.15am.

Approached by staff and asked to leave, he eventually did.

Staff were not aware at the time he had been trespassed from the store.

In the basement car park, Thompson opened the left rear passenger door of a white car and searched through a bag which was on the back seat.

The car owner and Warehouse staff found him inside the car.

He then walked over to another car and ‘‘tried’’ door handles.

Warehouse staff intervened and attempted to usher him off the premises. But he was hostile and aggressive.

While still in the car park, in view of numerous members of the public, including children, he pulled down his trousers and urinated on the floor.

Spoken to, he said he remembered getting into the white car and stated it belonged to a friend.

He did not recall his other actions.

Counsel Rhona Daysh said imprisonment was accepted. Thompson had been in custody since February 12.

Thompson had a severe head injury in 2008. His medical problems included diabetes and epilepsy. Because of memory problems he would forget things such as taking his medication and that he had been trespassed.

Judge Phillips said Thompson had time after time rejected assistance for his huge number of health and background deficits.

His ‘‘entirely unstable’’ lifestyle made electronicallymonitored sentences neither feasible nor, in the view of probation, appropriate.

His needs could perhaps be dealt with by a sentence of supervision. But he just rejected such sentences.

The court was left with no alternative but imprisonment.

Thompson was sentenced to seven months’ jail, with six months’ release conditions, on the first charge of unlawfully interfering; given concurrent four and two month terms respectively on the other unlawful interference and trespass; and for offensive behaviour, convicted and discharged.