Crossbow and bat threats

A Timaru man who threatened a relative and his neighbour with a hunting crossbow was yesterday told by a judge he was ‘‘dearly in need of some help’’.

Jesse Moore, 27, was sentenced in the Timaru District Court to two months’ community detention on two charges of possessing an offensive weapon, and one each of assaulting a child and driving while suspended.

According to the police summary of facts, Moore was at home with his family on February 4 when he became agitated, jumped out of the lounge window of the house and was heard swearing to himself in his bedroom.

A relative went to see what his problem was, and found him holding a baseball bat, and smacking it into the palm of his left hand in a threatening manner.

Moore asked the victim ‘‘would you like some of this?’’

Later the victim was standing in the hallway when Moore appeared, holding a heavy-duty crossbow, of the kind used for hunting big game. Moore swore at him before walking up to him and pointing the crossbow at his chest, forcing the relative to back away.

While the defendant was outside, a neighbour approached to try to calm things down, but Moore waved the crossbow at him and pointed it at his chest.

Moore went for a short drive, returning about 15 minutes later, manoeuvring up the neighbours’ driveway, hitting a power pole, and getting stuck. Police were called and found the crossbow and four crossbow bolts at the address.

On a separate occasion the aunt of a child in his care saw Moore grab the child’s arm with both hands and twist it, causing the victim to subsequently complain of soreness.

Defence Counsel Jay Lovely said Moore had already spent four months in custody, and had accepted that most of his previous issues had been due to drugs and alcohol. He disagreed with the recommended sentence of home detention, as that would come on top of the time he had already spent in custody.

‘‘Shall I just leave him in prison then?’’ Judge Brian Callaghan asked.

Lovely replied that a sentence of time served would suffice.

The judge said similar previous offending by Moore in 2013 and 2008 showed there was ‘‘a bit of a habit with this’’.

Crown Prosecutor Nyssa Winchester said a sentence of home detention would cover the special conditions necessary to address the issues of domestic violence and alcohol abuse.

Judge Callaghan said despite the fact the crossbow was not loaded during the offending, ‘‘it was clearly a frightening situation for the complainant’’.

‘‘To present the weapons in those circumstances clearly showed you were likely to use them. The fact you didn’t, of course, is the absence of an aggravating feature in respect of the offending.

‘‘One might have thought being dealt with by the court on these charges previously, you wouldn’t reoffend.’’

The offences warranted a starting sentence of 12 months in jail, increased by two months for Moore’s previous offending, then reduced to 10 months for his guilty plea.

As Moore had effectively already served most of the equivalent sentence in jail, he would only serve a very short period of home detention, the judge said. He imposed a final sentence of community detention including an element of supervision, as Moore was ‘‘dearly in need of some help with your issues’’.