Callum Renouf, 20, was arrested after police officers went to the home of his former partner, and mother of his child, and arrested him for assault and criminal damage.
While officers were searching Renouf they found cannabis on him and he was also arrested for possession.
Further searches of his coat and car found more drugs, amounting to 55.2g of cannabis resin, 16.9g of herbal cannabis, 0.3g of MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy) and 40 diazepam tablets, as well as a quantity of cash.
Crown Advocate Jenny McVeigh, prosecuting, said that the street value of cannabis – resin and herbal – was between £40 and £50 per gramme, but Renouf was selling it at lower prices of between £15-25 per gram for resin and £30-35 per gram for herbal.
The defendant’s mobile phone was examined and messages showed evidence of drugs transactions being arranged, including to purchase of medical cannabis.
Renouf admitted intending to supply the class B drugs cannabis resin and herbal cannabis, as well as possession of the class A drug MDMA and class C diazepam.
Advocate Sara Mallett, defending, said Renouf had experienced a troubled adolescence and mental health problems for which he was now receiving medication.
Renouf himself had a salutary experience while on remand and had started taking a plumbing course and also had a job in the prison.
He was genuinely sorry. He appreciated that a custodial sentence was likely but afterwards he was determined to become a good father to his son, who he had been seeing regularly.
References given to the court spoke of a troubled young man with a good heart, said the Advocate.
Judge Catherine Fooks said the court had taken the lower price of the drugs Renouf was selling as an aggravating factor.
She said the court encouraged him to take advantage of the advice in his probation report and the education opportunities offered at the prison. He was sentenced to two years and three months’ youth detention. The drugs were ordered to be confiscated and destroyed, and there were confiscation orders for his mobile phone and a total of £1,935.
Judge Fooks, sitting alone as a Judge in the Magistrate’s Court, then passed sentence on the assault and criminal damage charges.
Crown Advocate McVeigh said that Renouf had gone to his former partner’s home late one night after his father told him to leave the family home. He had let himself in and found her in bed. An argument followed which moved into the living room. The woman told Renouf, pictured right, to leave and pushed him out of the front door, but he kicked the lower PVC panel in and crawled through the gap back into the house.
The argument continued and went back into the woman’s bedroom, where after hitting her on the head with a plastic bottle, Renouf pushed her, causing her to fall and hit her head on a skirting board.
Police arrived soon afterwards, having been called by a neighbour. Renouf was arrested and the woman was taken to hospital but she was not seriously injured.
She had their baby by caesarean section a couple of weeks’ earlier, but the child was not in the house at the time.
Advocate Mallett said Renouf had been in a mental health crisis at the time and accepted that his behaviour and actions were deplorable.
But this was a sustained assault on a vulnerable young woman, said Judge Fooks.
‘This is clearly disgraceful behaviour and you ought to be ashamed of it,’ she said.
Taking into account the sentence just passed by the Royal Court, she imposed an additional three months’ youth detention.