Magistrate says 52-page criminal history is a ‘record’ in his court while sentencing repeat offender, Harold Henry Boota

A man whose alcohol-fuelled misbehaviour has helped him to amass a 52-page criminal history at 53 years old, has pleaded guilty to another four charges in Cairns Magistrates Court.

Harold Henry Boota, 53, verbally abused a man who refused him a cigarette and hit a nearby unit window with a broken fence paling last month.

A man whose alcohol-fuelled misbehaviour has helped him to amass a 52-page criminal history in his 53 years of life has pleaded guilty to another four charges in Cairns Magistrates Court.

Acting Magistrate Jon Ide said Harold Henry Boota’s criminal history was the longest one he had seen so far in his time as a magistrate.

“That (52-page history) would be a record for me,” said A/Magistrate Ide.

Boota pleaded guilty to four charges of public nuisance, wilful damage, obstructing police and going armed in public in Cairns on March 27, 2025, related to a drunken violent outburst when someone refused to give him a cigarette, the court was told.

Boota, 53, shouted obscenities at a man who refused to give him a cigarette in an drunken episode that has added another four offences to his 52-page criminal history.

The court was told Boota called the man a ‘white c***’, picked up a broken fence pailing, hit a nearby apartment window with the piece of wood, then swung it around.

When police arrived, Boota continued his name-calling and fence-post swinging, but directed it towards the officers, prompting them to take out their tasers.

The court was told Boota recognised he had a problem with alcohol, and had checked himself into a live-in rehabilitation centre for help since the offending.

Mr Ide told Boota his efforts were positive.

“Hopefully you’re at the start of doing the work to sort out that (alcohol use) … you should be spending time with your family, not causing members of the community grief, and causing the police grief,” Mr Ide said.

Cairns Acting Magistrate Jon Ide said he structured Boota’s sentence with a “carrot and a stick”, with help available for probation and a suspended sentence hanging over his head.

“There’s going to be a bit of a carrot and a bit of a stick (in this sentence).”

Mr Ide sentenced Boota to nine months probation on the charges of public nuisance and obstruct police, and to six months imprisonment, wholly suspended for 12 months, on the charges of wilful damage and going armed in public.

Mr Ide told Boota he would find himself back in prison to serve the six-month sentence if he committed any further offences, and encouraged him to take up the support available for his rehabilitation through the probation order.

Originally published as Magistrate says 52-page criminal history is a ‘record’ in his court while sentencing repeat offender, Harold Henry Boota