After calling an ambulance for his mother, a Dunedin man threatened to kill a paramedic who arrived at his home.
On October 3, Denial Rakesh Joseph (49) called an ambulance for his 69-year-old mother who had fallen, the Dunedin District Court heard yesterday.
Joseph was aggressive and agitated when ambulance staff arrived.
Wary of his demeanour, they took the woman to the ambulance.
The man became increasingly hostile and confrontational, telling the officers they had no right to take his mother away.
He refused to confirm her identity or provide the paramedics with her medication.
Joseph then aggressively rushed at the ambulance, attempting to get inside.
"If you ever come back here again I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you," Joseph said.
He was arrested at his home a short time later.
"I need to protect ambulance workers from this kind of behaviour," Judge Michael Turner said.
At a previous hearing this year, when discussing an appropriate sentence, the idea of community work was discussed.
Joseph stated if he was ordered to do community work, he would take his mother with him.
A stint of supervision was floated by the judge before being shot down by counsel Anne Stevens.
"I don’t think that would be a happy relationship sir, let’s put it that way," she said.
"I think that might be a little intractable."
Joseph was instead sentenced to three months’ community detention.
The judge said a weekend curfew would allow him to travel to Auckland where his son had been missing since April.
