Kelsey Hatton pleads guilty to hotel tirade in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court
A man who broke into a hotel in Melbourne’s CBD and smashed through a breakfast area has given cops a bizarre explanation for his early morning tirade.
Melbourne City
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A Rochester man who broke into a CBD hotel and destroyed the breakfast area in a drunken stupor told cops his “instincts” made him do it.
Kelsey Hatton, 27, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on January 15 to criminal damage.
The court heard Hatton broke into Batman’s Hill on Collins on September 26 last year by breaking through a fire exit door.
Hatton “shook the door with both hands” and broke the lock, gaining entry to the breakfast area of the hotel at 3.30am.
He then stormed through the area where he threw a flower pot, glasses, a juicer and a toaster as well as other items to the ground, causing them to break.
The cacophony alerted the hotel manager, who discovered Hatton in the midst of his booze-fuelled episode.
After being disturbed, Hatton fled the hotel, running back out the fire exit door onto Collins St.
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CCTV recorded the incident including Hatton later absconding.
He was arrested a short time later on Collins St.
Hatton told cops he “walked through the door, smashed a vase then ran away”.
“The door was unlocked, it was a will of instinct,” he said.
The court heard the outburst caused $500 damage.
Hatton’s lawyer told the court he was “intoxicated and couldn’t describe what led him to smash the vase”.
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“He’s been consistent with what he said … he had some instinct in him to do that,” the court was told.
The court heard Hatton had struggled with alcohol abuse and been sober for “quite a few months”.
Hatton was sentenced with conviction to a 12 month adjourned undertaking and was ordered to pay $250 in compensation.
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