Thefts part of series of offences

WHEN police questioned a Mosgiel woman about a burglary which scored her more than $25,000 of jewellery, she offered to show them where it was stashed.

But the rubbish bin at the Taieri Plain Lookout where the 32yearold took officers did not contain the precious items — because she had hidden them elsewhere.

Later, the defendant took the jewellery — which included a diamond ring worth nearly $5000 — to a local pawn shop.

She later pleaded guilty to two burglaries and attempting to obstruct the course of justice.

Judge Thomas Ingram granted the woman final name suppression, despite opposition from the Crown, because there was evidenceher suicide risk would increase with publication of her name.

Defence counsel Sophia Thorburn explained her client had been off her medication for weeks leading up to the crime spree and had been drinking as a form of ‘‘selfmedication’’.

In the early hours of February 1, the defendant went to a Puddle Alley home and entered through an unlocked front door.

Inside she grabbed a designer handbag and put two cellphones in it.

On her way out, she took $40 from a wallet she found in the victim’s car.

While she was in there, the resident turned on a light and the offender dropped the bag and ran off.

A week later, the defendant burgled a house on the same street.

Again, she brazenly entered through an open front door and found a jewellery box in the victim’s bedroom.

In some drawers, the woman found two similar boxes before making her way to another room.

However, her rummaging alerted one of the residents.

She explained to the man she was his soninlaw’s daughter; when he went away to make her a cup of tea, she left the house with the loot.

The defendant appeared in the Dunedin District Court this week after also admitting charges of assaulting a child and assault with intent to injure.

The former, which predated the burglaries, involved her biting her daughter’s thumb.

The latter came while she was on bail.

While at a relative’s wedding in April, the defendant refused to leave the event.

At 9.30pm she went to the bar and argued with an elderly family friend before engaging in a scuffle with him. People tried to intervene. ‘‘The defendant began screaming and yelling uncontrollably, and physically attacked by hitting and kicking anyone that approached her,’’ a summary said.

While leaving the venue, she bit the groom under the left bicep, ‘‘holding the bite for some time before releasing’’.

Crown prosecutor Marie Grills said the slew of offences were too serious for anything other than a prison term.

But Judge Ingram questioned whether a jail sentence would mean the woman’s mental health would deteriorate further.

He sentenced her to eight months’ home detention.