A magistrate urged a 26-year-old man not to look a gift horse in the mouth when he wholly suspended the three month jail sentence he handed him.
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Magistrate Simon Brown said Jayde Patrick Burling had indulged in appalling behaviour when he assaulted police on two occasions when in a heightened state under the influence of alcohol in 2022.
Burling of Newnham pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting and threatening a police officer in an incident which resulted in the officer receiving a broken finger.
He also pleaded guilty to counts arising from a separate incident when he behaved in a violent manner, resisted a police officer, trespassed and threatened a police officer.
He pleaded guilty to a count of common assault, possession of a controlled drug and three counts of breach of bail conditions.
Police prosecutor Kelly Brown said that Burling was charged with breach of bail after police conducted a walk through of the Commercial Hotel and spotted him about 1.12 am in July last year.
It was outside his curfew.
On November 12 Burling and his partner were arguing in the Launceston CBD when police came around a corner and saw him push her.
After Burling hit a glass window he ran across the road where police followed him.
When a constable tried to grab his arms to arrest him he pulled his arms away.
He then swung an right fist and hit her on the mouth and then ran away with police running after him yelling to stop.
He refused to be handcuffed and kicked his leg when police caught him and yelled abuse saying he was going to "headbutt every one of you motherf...ers".
A fortnight later police were called to a disturbance at a residence in Ravenswood where Burling was fighting with his brother.
When police arrived he fled into a home and kicked the front door. The defendant was not known to the occupants.
When police found him in a next door backyard he lunged at them saying "I'll kill you dogs".
He was capsicum sprayed three times during an extended confrontation.
In March this year he was found in possession of a ziplock bag of white powder.
Defence lawyer Fran McCracken said Burling's 28 pages of prior offences were artificially inflated by duplication of a number of matters.
She said he had a bad ice habit around 2020 and received a suspended sentence and drug treatment order which was eventually cancelled.
Ms McCracken said he had taken himself to a detoxification clinic and had been clean except for two short relapses.
"My instructions are that since March this year when he was arrested he has not used illicit substances and use of alcohol is non existent," she said.
"He has realised that any more than one drink results in him losing control."
Ms McCracken said Burling's upbringing was less than ideal with a number of behaviours exhibited by him where learned in childhood.
"Mr Burling does not want to follow in the footsteps of his father," Ms McCracken said.
She said Burling and his siblings had struggled for a pro social male role model.
Ms McCracken said Burling worked with his brother in a plastering business.
"He is making significant headway in trying to live a pro-social life," she said.
Mr Brown said that looking at Burling's record and his frankly appalling behaviour to police on several occasions would prompt many people to think that some time at Risdon was the only reasonable response the community would expect.
"However, while your record is a poor one it is not as extensive as it appears at first blush," he said.
"It needs to be looked at in context and in the light of the circumstances of these offences.
Mr Brown said that Burling was no longer regarded as a young offender.
"I accept that in your early years your father was either in prison or behaving in an abusive way," he said.
"Neither you or your siblings had a positive male role model."
Mr Brown said he was persuaded by Ms McCracken's submission to deal with the matter without a jail sentence.
He said Burling had been working and had addressed his drug problem.
"You have belatedly realised that you and alcohol are not a good mix," he said.
"At the end of the day there are real prospects of reform for you.
"Observing you today there are plenty of lights on at home.
"What you need to understand is that at 26 if you do not take this chance and you commit further offences then there is no option but to activate the suspended sentence and send you to jail.
"You have reached the point where you cannot afford to look a gift horse in the mouth."
Mr Brown fined Burling $700 for bail breaches, sentenced him to a three months wholly suspended jail sentence and ordered that he do 49 hours of community service and complete a family violence course.