Tagger deserves jail, says judge

Judge Stephen Erber has championed building owners and bus operators and sent a sharp warning to vandals and taggers.

At a Christchurch District Court sentencing yesterday he said there was no point ordering an 18-year-old to pay for the damage he did but added three months to the youth's jail term.

Ralph Charles Mehlhopt, unemployed, will serve a total of eight months for assaulting his 15-year-old partner, failing to do community work, etching his name into bus windows, causing $3000 damage, and tagging four buildings.

Judge Erber also had strong words for the police when he found that a Summary Offences Act charge of wilful damage had been laid for the damage to the bus.

He told the prosecutor: "Send a rocket to the officer in charge. Tell him to consider criminal damage under the Crimes Act for that level of offending."

Defence counsel Liz Bulger said Mehlhopt had told her he wished to deal with his alcohol and drug problems and his propensity for violence, to try to convince the Child, Youth and Family that he could get back a child who had been taken into care.

But Judge Erber said the assault on his partner was inexcusable. Mehlhopt had kicked her but she had made little complaint.

"She says she is used to getting bashed up because she has grown up with it."

She also said Mehlhopt had not assaulted her before. "She says, 'Usually he just throws me in a room.' This gives some idea of the circumstances in which you and she are living."

The judge said building owners were enraged by tagging. It decreased their sense of security and lowered the tone of the area. Allowing him to remain in the community under supervision "would leave the public a sitting duck for your kind of behaviour", he told Mehlhopt.

He allowed the teenager to apply for home detention because of his age.

- NZPA