Man Jailed For Threatening His Mother & Police

February 28, 2013

Appearing in Magistrates Court this morning [Feb 28], Paul Williams was jailed for five months after previously pleading guilty to threatening his mother and the police.

The Court previously heard that Williams had gone to his mother — who was at a seniors home — and demanded money from her.

When his mother refused, Williams became aggressive and the police were called. When the police arrived, Williams threatened his mother and the police officer. Williams has a prior record and is an outpatient at MAWI.

In sentencing him, Senior Magistrate Archie Warner expressed concern about his inability to provide or order proper care for people who required special care.

The case had originally come up before the Magistrate in late December 2012. At that time the Magistrate ordered a Social Inquiry Report, a Psychiatric Report, a Psychological Report, and a Bermuda Assessment and Referral Centre Report.

After referring to the compendium of reports, the Magistrate said that the psychological experts had agreed and had said that Williams has serious mental disorders that could only be properly handled if he was medicated and continuously supervised.

The expert opinion was that if Williams was not supervised and controlled, he would likely revert, as had frequently happened, to using illegal drugs. They agreed that when this happened, as had happened in December 2012, Williams was likely to break the law.

Magistrate Warner said that Bermuda had no facility to which he could send a person where that person could be held and kept in a non-prison environment where he could be supervised and medicated as required. The Magistrate said that such a facility could restrict or control a person’s movement but would not be a place of total confinement.

Crown Prosecutor Cindy Clarke said that the best that she could recommend was a five month prison sentence followed by probation for two years. Ms Clarke noted that the maximum sentence for his conviction was six months imprisonment. The Magistrate accepted this recommendation and sentenced him accordingly.

The Magistrate also ordered that during his incarceration, Williams must be afforded all psychological and psychiatric help that was available and of use to him. He also ordered that while on probation, Williams was to be offered and put on any and all rehabilitative programs that might or would be useful to him.

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Comments (10)

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  1. I only have one comment,instead of locking him up I would remind my children that I help bring you in this world and I would help take you out.

    In all seriousness I am glad that the mother was not physically harmed but emotionally shae will be effected for the remainder of her days and our hearts and prayers go out to her.the alarming thing is we have so much money in this country to lock people up and to put towards fighting crime but at no time have we seen or heard of funds going toward having a real mental facility center that would deal with those that are mentally disturbed.

    Mid Atlantic Wellness center serves its purpose but we need a facility that deals with cases tha are not really suitable for the present facilities we have and if we can not afford to put one here,then ship them to the U.K. to facilities that they have that are known for the expertise they have in dealing with these folk.

    We have far to many prisoners in westgate and the other prisons that need not to be there but for their own protection put in the right facility.

    • Raymond Ray says:

      Yes my brother Duane P Santucci, though I don’t often submit any comments to this site I couldn’t refuse this today.
      There are far too many at Westgate that needn’t be there and should be compensating the courts for fines they’re unable to pay by doing charity work, i.e. cleaning bushes, roadways and beaches of bottles and cans etc.
      I’m betwixt as to why aren’t those in prison,from any “civil case” working off their debt/s as oppose to being a burden to the others? Also, while we’re on this subject, why don’t we have a three strikes and out judicial system here on the Island?

  2. Amazed says:

    They need a residential facility on one of the smaller islands where they could roam about, be supervised, but not get off except by boat!

  3. SNS says:

    The other day I read a story about a boy who STABBED his ‘friend’ at albouys point and received 2 years probation – no jail time. Today I read this story where this man with a serious mental problem is jailed over an ARGUMENT with his mom. What the hell is going on?!?! I just don’t get it!!

    • ABM says:

      I thought the same thing. Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

  4. R U Serious says:

    Honour thy Father and Mother, so your days be long upon the earth………….

  5. Common Sense says:

    I know that a lot of folks want some kind of formula to decide on the amount of jail time dished out by the courts, but such a system would be catastrophic and counter-productive. Our magistrates and judges have to take a wide variety of factors into consideration before passing sentence. Just as an example, SNS says that this man was jailed for an “ARGUMENT” with his mom. That is far from the whole story. The man went to a seniors home demanding money from his mother and becoming “aggressive” with her. When the police arrived to calm things down he also threatened the officers. If the victim had been anybody other than his mother he could easily have been charged with far more serious offences.

    If the magistrate is worth his salt he would have to look at all the factors in this case. What are the man’s previous convictions? Will he leave his mother alone if he’s just given a tap on the wrist? Will a short sharp sentence (5 months) give the man time to reflect of the fact that it’s his mom who was victimized. Can he receive any treatment or counselling while incarcerated?

    When we read a brief summary of any case in the newspaper it is easy to make rash judgements because we do so without all of the facts and without seeing and hearing the witnesses and the offenders.

    Inperfect as it is I would far rather our magistrates and judges can use some discretion when passing sentences rather than setting down a strict set of rules that are intended to cover every type of case. That is impossible and completely unworkable.

  6. SMH says:

    “Magistrate Warner said that Bermuda had no facility to which he could send a person where that person could be held and kept in a non-prison environment where he could be supervised and medicated as required” This is unbelievable.

    We lock him up, do not provide treatment and he comes worse. If Bermuda keeps treating the mentally unstable this way we may get a mass murderer on our hands. Let’s learn from the US and start taking our mentally challenged members of society that have violent tendencies serious please!