“Wanton damage”: Raymond Kesio sentenced for vandalising parked cars

A young man has been sentenced after swinging a bit of wood into a row of parked cars, shattering their windows.

Fairfield Court heard Raymond Kesio smashed parked cars with a lump of wood. Picture: Ian Svegovic

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Raymond Kesio walked down Council Lane in Fairfield on October 2 armed with a 90cm plank of timber, swinging it at the windows of four parked cars.

Kesio, a 22-year-old from Yennora, was sentenced at Fairfield Local Court today, appearing via audio-video link from Cessnock Correctional Centre.

“The defendant claimed to have no recollection of his wanton damage,” Magistrate Suzanne Seagrave said. “Given his age, he’s accumulated an unenviable record.”

As she recited the facts of the case, Kesio dropped his head into his arms and occasionally wept.

The plank of timber police confiscated from Raymond Kesio. Picture: Fairfield Police

Kesio told police he was too drunk to recollect the events for an interview on the night of his arrest, the court heard.

“He had been drinking from the morning to his point in offensive conduct,” Kesio’s legal representative told the court.

“The reason he had relapsed into alcohol is he had lost his job … and was evicted from shared accommodation.”

Kesio was already under four community correction orders when he pleaded guilty to damaging the parked cars. Within the last two years, he has been convicted of a serious assault on a security guard at a licenced venue, of being in custody of a knife and resisting arrest.

The scene where Raymond Kesio used a plank of timber to damage four parked cars. Council Lane, Fairfield. Picture: Google

“All his previous offending (revolved) around his consumption of alcohol and his poor decisions made while intoxicated,” a police statement of facts said.

Ms Seagrave said the community correction orders hadn’t been successful in deterring Kesio from repeat offending.

“In my view, the custodial threshold has been breached,” she said.

“I propose revoking all but one of the community correction orders and sentencing the defendant.”

She handed down a 15-month aggregate sentence of imprisonment to be served as an intensive correction order for the four damage property charges.

Kesio will have to adhere to a curfew, receive treatment for alcohol and attend psychotherapy, as per the recommendation of a sentencing report.