A burglar trussed up like a chicken by a group of pensioners who found him robbing their pétanque club was a laughing stock in prison and would ”never be able to hold his head up in criminal company again,” his lawyer told a New Zealand court on Friday.
The lawyer for Clinton Michael Dearman (38) argued for a lesser sentence because of the publicity his incompetent raid on the Christchurch Pétanque Club last month had received and his subsequent humiliation, Radio New Zealand reported.
The judge in the Christchurch District Court said that if Dearman, who was also charged with assaulting one of the pensioners by punching him in the throat, did not want media attention he should behave himself. He jailed him for two years and four months.
After Dearman’s arrest a club committee member told The Press newspaper: ”We’re all old age pensioners. Anyway we’re all young at heart and all formed round him and held him down until the police arrived.”
Another member said the thief was big, violent and struggled, but ”to be held on the ground by guys who are all retired made a bit of a goat out of him”. – Sapa-DPA