By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
AN ALCOHOLIC who regularly rounded on his family in booze-fuelled rage has told a court that he wants to remain longer in jail to sober up and finish his studies.
The Narre Warren 27-year-old man pleaded guilty to breaching an intervention order that forbade him from drinking in the home he shared with his parents and sister.
Before a domestic argument on 22 May, the man had half-drunk a 700 mL bottle of bourbon.
His mother poured the remaining spirits down the sink, which led to the man threatening to kill a family member and taking a steak knife out of a kitchen drawer.
“You’ll make an enemy out of me,” the man told his family after they called police.
“I will not kill you. I’ll cut your arms and legs off.”
The man’s lawyer Adrian Dessi told Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 25 July that the man had since been remanded in custody for the first time and in an “unusual application” wanted to remain there.
“The environment he’s in gives him the opportunity to be sober and to finish courses that will run for another month.
“When he’s released, he will have a foundation for re-entering the work-force.”
Mr Dessi said the man was not interested in a community corrections order – something that had failed to quell his addiction in the past.
The man’s most sober moments were while in a work routine as a full-time concretor. He fell off the wagon when he lost work, Mr Dessi told the court.
The man had decided he was “simply not allowed to go back to the (family) address now.”
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said the man had reacted violently after the family had tried to protect the man by pouring away his bourbon, but appeared to be better in himself since sobering-up.
He was concerned that the man would be eventually released without any supervision.
“I can only put you on a community corrections order if you agree – and you don’t.
“You need on some level to engage with the community either with Alcoholics Anonymous or alcohol counselling.
“The conditions you’re in are artificial because you’re contained. The real risk is when you go back to the community.”
The man was jailed for four months – including 65 days already served in remand.
