A Cowra man who frightened a woman into leaving town and stole a bottle of Jim Beam bourbon from a local bottle shop has been released from prison.
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Arthur Joseph Williams, 23, committed a string of offences including four counts of assault on the same woman and evaded authorities for nearly six months between August last year and February, 2018.
He spent three months and 18 days at Bathurst jail from Tuesday, February 6 before being released at Cowra Local Court on Wednesday, May 23. The time he served behind bars acted as a period of non-parole.
Magistrate Michael O’Brien noted that it was Williams’ first time in custody.
“In order to avoid going into prison you need to start making better judgement. You need to respect the rights of others,” he said.
Williams appeared on multiple charges of assault, contravening an apprehended violence order and shoplifting. Court documents reveal Williams started evading police after committing the first set of offences on August 11 last year.
He attacked the victim in her home on Redfern Street. He pulled her hair, poked her face and pushed her head into a mattress and a pathway causing soreness to her head.
A warrant was issued however no arrest was made.
About four months later, on December 27, Williams assaulted the same victim. He spat on her shoulder and poked her face after she’d driven him from a Bourke Street residence to Erambie Mission.
Still evading authorities, on January 24, Williams was clearly spotted stealing a litre bottle of Jim Beam bourbon from a bottle shop on Railway Lane.
Solicitor Mr Song of the Aboriginal Legal Service said his client’s “criminal history is limited” and labelled his offending as “out of character” and “cowardly and immature as opposed to viscous”.
He “respectfully” submitted that no visible injury was inflicted in the assaults. “There’s never an excuse for such cowardly behaviour,” Mr Song conceded.
Williams was ordered to pay $50 for the stolen bottle of bourbon and a breached section nine bond was reimposed.