A Corner Brook man with a lengthy criminal record, including numerous convictions for court order breaches and violence, will be spending the next two months behind bars for his latest offences.
Michael Randell Oxford, 56, was arrested on Poplar Road at around 5 p.m. Monday after the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary received a complaint of a man breaching a court order.
Oxford appeared before Judge Catherine Allen-Westby in provincial court Tuesday and entered a guilty plea to breaching the court order.
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The judge was told Oxford had been talking to a woman he was ordered to stay away from. The woman, along with her daughter’s boyfriend, asked Oxford to leave but he refused to do so.
Oxford told the court he actually talks to the woman often and has given her food and money in the past. He said the police were called Monday when he went to her home and asked for cigarettes.
Crown attorney Adam Sparkes said disobeying a court order designed to offer someone protection is a serious offence. He asked that Oxford, who has more than 80 prior convictions on file, be given between 30 and 60 days.
Sparkes said, after a while, the court has to shift its focus on trying to rehabilitate or deter someone like Oxford and place more emphasis on protecting the public from him.
That same sentiment was expressed by Judge Wayne Gorman last fall when he sentenced Oxford to six months in prison for theft, resisting arrest and causing a disturbance.
Connor Mullin, who defended Oxford in court Tuesday, said his client was put in somewhat of an unfair circumstance in this case by the victim who had allegedly accepted help from Oxford in the past but called the police when he came looking for a small favour in return.
Mullin said his client acknowledged he breached a court order, but should only be given between 15 and 30 days in prison.
