A man who escaped lawful custody, damaged the uniform of a police officer and assaulted another has been sentenced to 1 year, 2 months and 9 days imprisonment.
21-year-old Seci Vesikula is charged with a count each of damaging property, escaping lawful custody and serious assault.
On the 15th of December last year, Vesikula jumped over a wall and ran out of Nabua Police Station.
He was later arrested from Jerusalem Road while he tried to get into a taxi after coming out of a bush.
Vesikula tore the shirt of a police officer who was arresting him and pushed another officer.
While sentencing the man, Magistrate Seini Puamau says this is not his first offence as he was convicted of damaging property in September, 2022 and was bound over with a sum of $300.
She says he was then convicted for theft in October, 2022 and served 2 months in prison with three months suspended for 2 years.
She says he was then convicted in January last year for absconding bail and was imprisoned for 1 month, 5 days.
Magistrate Puamau says instead of reforming after serving non-custodial sentence and short prison sentences, she does not think he is a good prospect for rehabilitation.
She says ordinarily, she would try to give him some chance to reform but in this instance and with all the chances that has been given to Vesikula, she cannot.
Magistrate Puamau adds that psychology shows that a human brain is not fully developed until the age of 25 and there are a lot more years for him to make bad decisions so she cannot take the risk that as he matures, his crimes continue to escalate and he hurts people.
Vesikula will serve 8 months in prison before he is eligible for parole.
