Court feels parents’ pain for son

A Geraldton magistrate has expressed sympathy for the plight of parents trying to help their drug abusing children, as a 30-year-old Geraldton man was sentenced to jail.

Shane William Fisher was served with a violence restraining order preventing him from going near his parents or their premises on May 10, but on October 2 at 5.25pm he went to their home.

The court heard Fisher had brought his daughter with him from Perth, and told his parents he had nowhere to stay, causing them to feel they had to take the pair in, which Magistrate Donna Webb described as “emotional blackmail”.

He remained in the home for a short time but eventually an argument led to them calling the police, who charged Fisher with the breach.

Ms Webb said she had granted the restraining order to Fisher’s parents and understood how difficult it was for them to do so, because they still loved their son, evidenced by the fact they continued to allow contact by telephone to offer him support.

However, she explained it was his continuing use of drugs despite their attempts to help which left them with no other option.

“They really didn’t want him coming to the home because of his erratic and violent behaviour,” she said.

Duty lawyer Kate Turtley-Chappel said it was accepted that Fisher’s main issue had been his drug use, and he had only come to his parents because he had nowhere else to go.

Fisher pleaded guilty to the two counts of breaching violence restraining order, one for each parent, and these convictions triggered a six-month suspended sentence.

He was also sentenced to an additional six months jail for the offences, which was ordered to run concurrently with the triggered suspended sentence so the actual jail sentence was not lengthened.

In an unrelated case a 47-year-old Beresford man has received fines totalling more than $3000 for a series of drug and driving offences.

Adrien Paul Hipper pleaded guilty in Geraldton Magistrate’s Court on Thursday to possessing 1.1g of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia on June 4.

The $900 fine for these convictions was handed down along with fines for offences he had previously pleaded guilty to, including driving with false plates ($500), possessing a prohibited drug ($500), possessing drug paraphernalia ($300), and driving under suspension ($1000 and a nine-month licence disqualification).

Hipper pleaded not guilty to two counts of unlicensed possession of firearms or ammunition, however, and will appear again for those charges on December 12.