A NOWRA man who attempted to take a police officer’s firearm, wrestled with officers, urinated in a police cell and damaged a CCTV camera has been sentenced to 12 months jail.
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Benjamin Haake, 22, of Blackmore Close, Nowra appeared in Nowra Local Court before Magistrate Mark Richardson charged with assaulting police, resist arrest and intentionally or recklessly destroy, damage property belonging to the NSW Police Department.
Police alleged Haake attended the Nowra Police Station on August 11 last year in an agitated and paranoid state, saying he was afraid to leave the station and that people were following him.
It was alleged he admitted to having taken drugs.
Haake was talking to officers in the doorway of an interview room adjacent to the station’s front counter and when told he couldn’t stay the night he allegedly lunged at an officer attempting to grab his firearm.
He was restrained by three officers where he continued to wrestle and resist, with one officer sustaining a cut to his hand.
After he was handcuffed and placed into the station dock, he allegedly head-butted the perspex wall.
He was moved to a police cell where it was alleged he produced a mobile phone, which he proceeded to flush down the toilet. He then used a cigarette lighter to try and light the cell blankets.
Officers entered the cell and Haake became violent, wrestling with police with another sustaining an injury.
Haake allegedly had his handcuffs removed and he ran and head-butted the perspex cell wall before urinating throughout the cell.
He spat at and bashed a CCTV camera while standing on a toilet, later throwing himself off the toilet and suffering an injury which required treatment at Shoalhaven District Hospital.
At the time he was already on a nine-month good behaviour bond for charges relating to an assault.
Magistrate Richardson revoked the order and imprisoned him for nine months with a non-parole period of three months.
On the incidents at Nowra Police Station he was sentenced to 12 months in jail with a non-parole period of four months.