Jason David Jordan admitted the offence when he appeared in the Royal Court from custody, along with counts of burglary and assault on a police officer in the due execution of his duty.
The court was told how he had a lengthy criminal record, of which more than half related to offences of dishonesty. In July 2023 he had been jailed for three years and nine months for handling stolen goods.
He was released from prison on licence in March last year. On the same day, he was still in possession of a prison request form which is only used for internal matters at Les Nicolles. He altered the document to make it look as though it was an authorisation for medication, and took it to a doctor at L’Aumone Surgery. He told the doctor that he had been given no medication on his release from prison, which was a lie, and he was given the drugs.
About a month later, a woman returning to her flat in communal accommodation in St Peter Port at about 4.20pm, was surprised to see a key in the door. When she opened the door expecting to see her partner, she found Jordan in the premises. She was panicked by this and he told her to calm down, adding that he had not taken anything.
She went in to a communal area. Jordan asked to use the toilet and while he was doing this she phoned the police.
On their arrival he refused to unlock the toilet door and officers had to force it open. He said he had done nothing wrong and denied entering the woman’s room. The court heard how the incident had made the woman physically sick and she had suffered anxiety about it ever since. Jordan had previously attended at her work place and she feared he would do so again.
He was arrested and later transferred to hospital and two officers were posted there to guard him.
Two days later he began demanding medication from hospital staff and was raising his voice. He was told to calm down and at one point tried to flip a bed over. When he overturned a table an officer drew his pava incapacitating spray. Jordan then punched a wall and struck a window with his elbow, before spitting in the face of one of the officers, attempting to bite him, and threatening to kill him.
Defending, Advocate Samuel Steel said his client had been concerned about how he would cope with his anxiety in the community following his release from prison. He accepted he had entered the woman’s flat in an attempt to find drugs, but he had not ransacked the property or rummaged through belongings.
He wished to apologise to the woman and the police officers who were involved in this case.
He had cringed when shown police body-worn camera footage of the incident at the hospital which he had committed while agitated in a state of withdrawal. All of these matters stemmed from his long history of drug abuse. By his client’s own admission, drugs had ruined his life.
Judge Catherine Fooks said the court accepted that the defendant’s remorse was genuine and the letter he had written was sincere.
But he had committed the offence of handling stolen goods just 12 days after his release from a previous prison sentence. When he was sentenced in July 2023 he had told the court that he wanted to break his pattern of offending.
The latest offences would indicate he was unable to.
Jordan was jailed for three years for the burglary, one year for the assault, and two years for the fraud, all to run consecutively, making a total of six years.