AN ANGRY offender who unleashed a tirade against police officers in court will stay in custody until at least mid-February.
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Matthew Duncan had been given a chance to avoid jail but failed to undergo drug testing and lost the plot at the Wodonga Magistrates Court.
He had attended with a mate on November 21 and took out his phone.
A policewoman thought he was about to start recording the proceedings, which is banned, and asked him to leave.
He became aggressive and swore at her as she tried to get him to leave with the help of other officers.
“You’re a f---ing dog ---, remember the time I kicked your jaw in?” he screamed at a police member.
Duncan left the building but came back.
Court staff locked the doors and he spat on the window.
The 22-year-old was taken into custody two days later.
He had other charges pending, including a case in which a sentence was deferred to see if he could straighten himself out and stay out of trouble.
The Wodonga man had been ordered to give urine samples as part of another penalty where he had avoided prison, but didn’t.
“He seriously wants to go to jail than be out?” magistrate Stella Stuthridge asked this week.
Lawyer Mario Vaccaro said his client “goes off and says things without thinking”.
“When he’s off the drugs, he’s a different person,” Mr Vaccaro said.
Duncan – who stabbed a woman in her hand in May and threatened to slit a police officer’s throat after being bailed – said he wanted to clean up his act.
“I want to change my life … I’m 22 years old, I need to find a job, I need to put an input in my son’s life,” he said.
The matter will return on February 20.