Prison for chef who threw TV out of hotel window

Saturday 23 February 2019

A former chef with a history of violence who had recently moved to the island wasted the chance for a "fresh start" when he threw a TV out of a hotel window.

Daniel Michael McDonald, 27, was chastised by Judge Cherry McMillan for not having paid a 'penny' towards the criminal damage incurred at the Hotel De Havelet last year.

On 21 January 2018 the then 26-year-old was booked in to the hotel with his partner via another party over the telephone. The next morning, the hotelier found the room empty and the television worth over £100 had been ripped from the wall and lay broken in the bushes outside.

Around £219 of damage was caused in total, including repair work to the wall where the television had been removed. The Court heard the defendant had heard some bad news which led him to act out in this way.

Judge Cherry McMillen said the man had a "terrible record which reads like a film noir" including a robbery and assault on an elderly man in St Alban's in  2014 and had wasted his chance to start over while living in the island. 

Alongside the charge for unlawful criminal damage, McDonald appeared charged with failing to meet his bail conditions by not appearing in the Guernsey courts on a date in November last year. 

Defence Advocate Paul Lockwood argued his client had changed his ways since the offence occurred. He said after moving to the UK he had travelled over for number of bail hearings in the island in addition to one failure to appear in November.

"A person can change a good deal in that time, this is not someone who's thumbing his nose at the court. I would suggest the primary objective is he continues to have a social lifestyle and to turn over a new leaf," he said. 

Judge McMillen handed down the sentence of four weeks for the criminal damage and two weeks for the breach of bail as well as a £100 compensation order as she condemned the man's prior record and urged him to take responsibility for his own actions in future. 

"You are [now] 27-years-old and I am presented with a criminal record eight pages long, you've been in and out of custody most of your young life, there have been attempts to deal with you that have not worked. Your actions are looked at in context of your previous actions. I wonder if you ever thought about that man in 2014, if you have why wouldn't you translate that into your behaviour?"