Jonathan David Australian man jailed for breaking coronavirus quarantine rules to visit girlfriend. Snuck out of Perth hotel he’d been mandated to stay at for 14 days.
Define breathtakingly stupid arrogant …?
An Australian man has become the first person in Australia to be jailed for breaching emergency coronavirus laws after repeatedly sneaking out of a Perth hotel room to visit his girlfriend while under mandated coronavirus quarantine, according to reports.
Jonathan David, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with a direction in a Perth court on Wednesday after a judge called him ‘breathtakingly arrogant,’ Perth Now reports.
David was told to quarantine at a Travelodge Hotel for 14 days after having traveled recently from neighboring state, Victoria. Instead, he snuck out of the building and used public transport, catching a train on April 4 and 5 en route to his girlfriend’s residence, Perth’s WAToday reported.
David was seen by hotel staff on five occasions over four days outside of his room before police were contacted.
The man is alleged to have left the building on multiple occasions to visit his girlfriend and buy food.
No moral compass:
Cops said that David in one instance, wedged open a fire exit door with a napkin so he could leave and return without staff seeing him. While David managed to avoid being detected by staff, his movements that evening were captured by CCTV cameras.
A prosecutor described the act as ‘gross stupidity’ and a magistrate said David had been ‘more than foolish’ and was ‘selfish in the extreme,’ and was devoid of ‘moral compass.’
‘You were more than foolish, your actions were selfish in the extreme, your actions were reckless in that you paid no attention to the potential risk you were exposing the community to,’ Magistrate Elaine Campione said.
‘You chose to roll the dice with other people’s lives and that was breathtakingly arrogant,’ the magistrate added.
Adding further, ‘We are in a state of emergency, these are extraordinary times and we are all required to do extraordinary things.
‘The terrible extent and impact of the pandemic worldwide and the sacrifices others have made could not have been lost on you.’
The forlorn boyfriend was sentenced to one month in jail and fined $2,000 AUD ($1,267 USD). Should David commit a crime within the next 12 months he will have to serve most of his suspended jail sentence of six months.
The maximum penalty for failing to comply with a directive in Western Australia is a $50,000 AUD fine (circa $32K USD) or 12 months imprisonment.
Of note, David’s girlfriend has since been evicted from her house.
