40 months in prison for bizarre, abusive crimes
Judge says Robert Tanner Banks, 31, of Fredericton, has made great rehabilitative strides in custody, but court can’t turn blind eye to “cruelty,” dangerous nature of offences last fall
A judge said Wednesday an offender had shown real commitment to improving himself while in custody, but the extreme nature of his crimes - including violence to his pregnant girlfriend - merited a prison term.
Robert Tanner Banks, 31, of Fredericton, was brought to Fredericton provincial court in custody Wednesday to hear Judge Lyne Raymond’s decision on sentence in his case.
He’d previously pleaded guilty to a string of violent and dangerous crimes committed between Oct. 18 and 26 involving violence against his girlfriend, Jessica Jones, and a bizarre and dangerous pursuit by police that included a robbery at a rural gas station.
Court heard that Banks assaulted Jessica Jones by choking and striking her in the head, threatened to kill her, threatened police officers, all on Oct. 18; unlawfully entered Jones’ parents’ home Oct. 24; fled from police, drove dangerously, robbed a cashier at the Boiestown Irving, damaged a gas pump there, assaulted a Mountie, damaged RCMP property and threatened police again, all on Oct. 26.