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Man jailed for "threatening to rape and kill" policeman's family

Man jailed for

Friday 28 August 2020

Man jailed for "threatening to rape and kill" policeman's family

Friday 28 August 2020


A 19-year-old threatened to rape a Police Officer's children and racially abused another in a drunken torrent of abuse that will see him spend time behind bars.

Toby Roussel was sentenced to a total of 12 months in Youth Detention for these crimes and for triggering another sentence - within a month of being given a "second chance" by the Magistrate's Court.

Police officers were called to the North Beach toilets on 02:50 on 14 August, where Roussel was reportedly slumped inside a cubicle. Two officers asked him if he was ok, however he repeatedly told them to "f*ck off" and was eventually taken into custody for disorderly behaviour. 

At the police station, he talked over one of the police officers while he tried to explain why Roussel had been arrested and then started verbally abusing one of the other officers. 

Roussel said to them: "I will remember your name and remember your face, it is a small island."

Police Station Law Enforcement

Pictured: Roussel resisted arrest and verbally abused officers at the police station. 

There was a further struggle when Roussel resisted their efforts to guide him to a cell for the night, meaning that more officers had to be called as Roussel was holding them up in a doorway. 

Once in the cell, Roussel continued to threaten the officers. He said to one of them: "I will find you, I will find your family - I will kill your family and rape your children."

He then started racially abusing another, calling him a "n*gger c*nt" and telling him that "outsiders" and "freaks and weirdos like you" are not welcome in Guernsey, in a torrent of abuse that lasted around three minutes. 

According to the Prosecution Lawyer, Roussel did not remember anything from the incident and his facial expression changed to a "look of shock" when the comments he made were recited back to him.

"When he's drunk he changes." said Advocate Rory Calderwood.

states_north_beach.jpg

Pictured: Roussel was arrested at the North Beach toilets for disorderly behaviour in the early hours of 14 August. 

 Defence Advocate Liam Roffey said his client was realistic about the punishment he would face.

"I have not been asked to excuse the inexcusable. He is quite rightly ashamed," said Advocate Roffey.

He said Roussel wished to make a full apology to both police officers and fully recognised that what he had said was unforgivable. "No one deserves those comments to be made to them," he reportedly told his Advocate. 

Advocate Roffey said Roussel had serious struggles with his mental health and that his use of alcohol had continued "unabated" since his most recent court appearance in July.

On that occasion, Roussel was given 180 hours of community service, as a direct alternative to six months in youth detention, for a string of offences that included a late night fight, kicking a police officer in the stomach and breaking into the station, all of which happened while drunk. 

Royal Court

Pictured: It was Roussel's second visit to Magistrate's Court in just two months.

In sentencing last month, Judge Graeme McKerrell said that substance abuse was clearly a "common thread" running through Roussel's offending behaviour. 

"Carry on and you are heading for a sorry and miserable future," he said at that time. "However, I am hopeful that you have a chance of being saved."

Despite his optimism, Roussel committed these latest offences under a month since his last court appearance. 

Judge Russell Finch, sentencing this time, said that no matter what problems Roussel had, he had behaved disgracefully towards the police officers. 

He sentenced him to six months in prison for these offences and also triggered the six-month direct alternative to his July sentence. 

In total, Roussel will go to Youth Detention for 12 months and will have to pay £150 compensation to the officer he racially abused and £100 to the other officer he threatened. 

Pictured top: Roussel was sentenced in Guernsey's Magistrate's Court. 

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