Pre-Sentence Report

Sources of Information

In the writing of this report I have carried out a series of interviews. On the 2nd and 14th of June 2016, I interviewed Akin at his home address in Oldham Manchester. I Interviewed his brothers, mother and stepdad at their home address on the 5th of June in Oldham Manchester. A telephone liason was carried out with Mrs. Beecham, the owner of the shop, “The Old Place”. I also had a telephone liason with Mr.Fisher, the principal of Burnage Academy for Boys secondary school attended by Akin. I spoke to the police officer who was in charge of the investigation and received the case details from him. I also spoke to the psychologist who was assigned to carry out some therapeutic sessions with Akin.

Offence Analysis

On 24th May, 2016, Akin Obaseki, who was then seventeen years of age was involved in an incident of shoplifting, vandalism and assault for which he was arrested and pled guilty. The details of the incident are as follows.

‘The Old Place’ is a small shop in Oldham Manchester, which serves as a dry grocer and a mixed items shop. It is run by an old couple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Beecham, who are both in their late 60s. On 24th May, 2016, at about 7.30 PM, Akin Obaseki walked into the shop. Mr. and Mrs. Beecham were then in the process for winding up for the day. However, they did not stop Akin from coming into the shop. As he was alone and looked well turned out (he was in his school uniform), they thought he was a young boy who maybe needed to buy something and did not think it would take very long for them to provide him the service.

The CCTV was on at the time and Mrs. Beecham happened to catch a glimpse of Akin trying to put something in his windcheater pocket. She alerted her husband who was at the time in the process of bringing the displays outside the shop back into the shop and he also saw a clip of the CCTV footage. Akin had clearly put something into his pocket. By the time Akin had walked up to the counter with a bag of crisps and he took out some money to pay for it. Mr. Beecham asked to see his pockets. Akin refused to turn out his pockets and started arguing with Mr. Beecham. In the meantime, Mrs. Beecham locked the main door in order to bar Akin’s egress.

Akin demanded that the door be opened. Mr. Beecham insisted that Akin turn out his pockets and called him “a thief and a sneak”. By this time Akin was enraged and started pounding on the door and when the old couple did not budge, Akin started throwing things down. By now Mrs Beecham was alarmed and she opened the door and begged Akin to leave. But Akin was now out of control and was raging at the old couple and continuing to throw things off the racks. Mr. Beecham tried to pull Akin away because some of the things were breakable and Mr. Beecham was afraid for the damage and loss. However, as soon as Mr. Beecham started pulling away, Akin turned around and hit Mr. Beecham on his face with something that he had picked from the rack. Mr. Beecham sustained some injury on his face and also broke his front tooth.

Akin ran away immediately. Mrs. Beecham alerted the police and also called an ambulance to take Mr. Beecham to the hospital. On the way, Mr. Beecham, who suffers from a heart ailment, suffered a heart attack. Fortunately, it was a minor attack and Mr. Beecham was released from the hospital in three days. In the meantime, the police tracked down Akin due to the CCTV footage which captured the offending behaviour. Because Akin was wearing his school uniform, it was not difficult for the police to trace his whereabouts. Akin confessed to the offences. The thing that he had shoplifted was a chocolate, which was also confirmed by the CCTV footage. It seems that Akin has made a bet with his friends that he could shoplift “something”. He refused to name the friends he had made the bet with.

Offender Assessment

Akin is a eighteen years old boy from Oldham Manchester. He lives at home with his mother, stepfather and two younger brothers. He goes to school at Burnage Academy for Boys secondary school at Oldham Manchester. Akin is described as quiet and shy by the neighbours, although some of the neighbours who have been longer in the area, remember him as a happy and kind boy when he was younger. This is when his father was still alive. Since his father’s death when Akin was twelve years old, he has been different. When his mother remarried, Akin became even more withdrawn and would hardly ever speak to anybody.

Akin is the oldest child and his two younger brothers are five and seven years younger than him. They are very fond of their older brother who looks out for them at school and at home. Akin’s step father is a solicitor and he has a daughter from a previous marriage who is in the University. From all accounts Akin’s step father does not get along with Akin. The younger brothers are also not very fond of their step father who they describe as a hard task master and someone who is always telling them what to do and how to do it. They mostly keep out of his way, but Akin seems to always be getting into arguments with the step father, usually at the dinner table, which they have to mandatorily sit at. Akin tried to skip dinner a few times in order to avoid fighting with the step father but on these occasions he had to go without dinner as a punishment. Akin’s brothers say that the fights are usually started by the step father due to his caustic remarks about Akin or one of the brothers’ grades at school or lack of sporting ability or something of that nature. Akin usually remains quiet but blows up when the step father does not stop passing sarcastic remarks about Akin or the other boys. Akin is very protective about his brothers and if the step father says something about them, he gives it back. Akin himself has good grades at school and also plays the violin well. However, the step father seems to always have some reason to goad him into anger. At these times, Akin has sometimes thrown his plate or done something destructive like breaking things around the house or hitting his fists at the wall until they bleed.

The principal of Akin’s school, Mr. Fisher, says that Akin has never got into trouble at school and is generally well behaved. He is quiet and does not have many friends barring the handful of students in his music class, which is the one class that Akin seems to be very passionately involved in.

The psychologist who has assessed Akin’s mental and emotional state in some therapy sessions says that Akin has deep seated feelings of loss and bereavement at his father’s death which he does not seem to have overcome. He also has feelings of betrayal due his mother’s remarriage, that too, to a man who does not respect or love either him or his younger brothers. He feels angry at his mother for not protecting them enough from his step father’s needling and caustic behaviour with them. Therapy has also revealed that Akin is angry with his paternal grandparents, who he was very close to. They stopped visiting when his mother remarried. During the therapy Akin speaks to most about his brothers and the least about his mother, step father and grand parents, meaning that he has trouble expressing his anger, which may be the reason why he has an anger management issue. She feels that the displaced anger at his mother, step father and grand parents may have been the triggering points for his rage at the shop and violent behaviour with the old couple who may have reminded him of the adults in his life who have left him down.

Mrs. Beecham remembers that Akin was well behaved until the point when they asked him to turn out his pockets and that after that “flew into a rage like someone possessed.” She also spoke about the impact that Akin’s behaviour has on Mr. Beech. She says that Mr. Beech has suffered a major loss of self-confidence, and also refuses to keep the shop open at evenings.

Assessment of Risk and Dangerousness (including risk of re-offending and risk of harm)

Akin poses a medium risk to society. The principal area of risk is related to anger control and anger management. Akin does not seem to have control over his anger al all. Akin needs continued therapy for anger management and for his repressed feelings of anger and loss at his father’s death.

Conclusion

It is concluded that Akin poses medium risk to the society and he needs anger management therapy. Akin seems to be a good brother and his brothers have a lot of respect for him. His school principal is also positive about his potential for improvement and reform, based largely upon the fact that Akin has rarely if ever got into trouble with breaking the rules before this. As Akin refuses to tell the names of the people with whom he had a bet, it is hard to say how exactly he was prevailed upon to break the law for a chocolate. However, the fact that a chocolate is all that he stole, it appears to be clear that the entire episode was a teenage prank that went horribly wrong because of Akin’s rage when he was stopped by the old couple. The therapist has said that Akin is truly remorseful about hitting Mr. Beech and she says that Akin says that he never meant to hurt anyone. He only wanted to get the chocolate and get out of the store.

If Akin is given a custodial sentence, he will be required to stay in the prison, which means that he will have to drop out of school. He would also come to live with people who have committed serious crimes and this can have a bad impact on his psyche. As Akin is a good student and has many aspirations for the future, this may mean that some of these aspirations would be difficult to achieve.

Recommendation(s) to the Courts

It is recommended that Akin not be given a custodial sentence and instead he be given a community sentence. Akin is not a hardened offender and this is the first time he has actually been found breaking the law. Akin does have an anger management problem, which may be corrected with the help of therapy.

Akin should be made to regularly report to the Youth offending team assigned his case. If Akin has another rage related problem or a similar situation in the future, then the court may double the community sentence.

The opportunity to serve his sentence in form of some community service will also help Akin to develop his sense of responsibility to the community that he lives in.