A four-time drink driver, a paedophile who downloaded indecent images of children and a man who stalked his estranged wife were jailed this week.
Factory worker reversed into another car while over limit
Magistrates in Ipswich heard how Arunas Petrauskas, 32, was driving a Volvo along Norwich Road in Ipswich just after midnight on May 8.
Petrauskas, of Geneva Road, Ipswich, reversed the car into another vehicle and police arrived at the scene, the court heard.
He failed a roadside breath test and in custody blew 114 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
The legal limit is 35mcg in 100ml of breath.
The court heard that Petrauskas had three previous drink-driving convictions - two in 2019 and one in 2020 - and was currently serving a three-year driving disqualification.
Magistrates jailed Petrauskas for 22 weeks and he was banned from driving for four years and four months.
Paedophile 'accepted having sexual interest in young boys'
When Peter Starck's phone was analysed, it was found to contain 16 indecent images of children in the most serious level A category, 18 in category B and 15 in the lowest level C category.
All the images related to boys aged between nine and 15 and there was evidence of him deliberately searching for the images, Ipswich Crown Court heard on Monday.
Starck, 41, of Kingsley Close, Ipswich, admitted three offences of making indecent images of children between December 2018 and December 2019.
Peter Spary, representing Starck, said his client accepted having a sexual interest in boys aged between nine and 15.
Sentencing Starck, Judge David Pugh said sex offender treatment programmes he had attended in the past had been unsuccessful and a psychiatrist and a probation officer had categorised him as being at “high risk” of reoffending.
“Time and time again you have been given opportunities to change your behaviour,” the judge said.
He was jailed for 12 months and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Starck is already the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.
Man bombarded his wife with messages and emails
A 62-year-old man travelled from South Africa to Suffolk and stalked his wife after they separated, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
Christopher Arnold bombarded his wife with messages and emails and led her to believe he was in the UK and was staying nearby.
The messages included him saying: “I’m very near you” and “I’ll be seeing you sooner than you think,” Isobel Ascherson, prosecuting, told the court.
The court heard that the pair were married and had been living in South Africa until the relationship broke down and Arnold's wife came back to the UK to get away from him.
In August last year, police were notified when Arnold was found near his wife's new home with binoculars and when his property was searched, her wedding dress and notes detailing her movements were discovered.
Arnold, of Langvlei Dunes, South Africa, admitted stalking his wife causing her alarm or distress by repeatedly contacting her, trying to find out where she was living and loitering in the area where she was living between December 18 2019 and August 22 last year.
Recorder William Clegg said: “Men must understand that when they engage in stalking women it causes them serious alarm and distress and such contact will inevitably be met by an immediate term of imprisonment."
Recorder Clegg said Arnold’s behaviour was aggravated by a previous conviction for battery involving a different partner.
Arnold was jailed for 17 months and was banned from contacting his wife for 10 years.
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