A Hull man has been jailed for showing a "complete lack of respect" for orders made by the court.
Jimmy Featherstone, 22, of Sandringham Street, Hull, admitted being in breach of a conditional discharge and a community order when he appeared at Hull Magistrates' Court on Monday, 15th November 2021.
District Judge Zoe Passfield heard that Featherstone, who is nicknamed "Ken Doll" by the local media, had attended only six appointments with the Probation Service out of the fifteen he was offered.
Of the nine appointments he missed, only four were deemed to be acceptable absences.
The court also heard that Featherstone had spoken to his offender manager in an "unacceptable way" when he was questioned about his non-attendance at the start of this month.
Robert Vining, mitigating, told the court that his client, who cancelled "a nose job in Germany" to appear on ITV's This Morning programme in mid-October, had trouble remembering appointments.
He had recently bought himself a diary, which he thought would improve the situation.
Judge Passfield replied: "I would assume that he has a phone, does he not have one with a calendar?"
Speaking further, Mr Vining added: "Over the last year he has come to terms with the feeling that he was used by the victim [the subject of the first court order in 2020].
"It is that which has caused him problems in the past, the previous breach was in relation to the curfew imposed after that case and he said the equipment not working properly had been a problem from the start.
"He does now accept that he had breached that curfew on occasions and is remorseful for his actions.
"He is intending to pursue a career in reality TV and says that he would be in a position to pay a financial penalty if the court was minded that would be sufficient.
"He is absolutely terrified by the prospect of a prison sentence and feels that his appearance would leave him vulnerable while he is in custody.
"He tells me that he has been the victim of attacks in public in and around Hull city centre just for the way that he looks and with homophobic undertones."
Judge Passfield was of the opinion that Featherstone's lack of compliance was so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate.
Addressing Featherstone, she said: "Mr Featherstone, it is abundantly clear to me that you do not feel bound to the orders made by this court.
"You have shown a complete lack of respect after you were given a conditional discharge in May 2020 which you have continued to breach on multiple occasions.
"You were then given a community order in April 2021 by this same court, you went on to breach that order again this year.
"Revisiting your sentencing, I am today giving you an eight week custodial sentence for both offences, you will serve these concurrently and will spend eight weeks in prison in total."
Featherstone, who was clutching an H&M carrier bag, reportedly looked stunned when custody staff appeared at the back of the court to lead him away to the cells.
No comments:
Post a Comment