A PARANOID schizophrenic ice user who stabbed his brother-in-law outside the Wodonga Police Station has had his sentence slashed.
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Luke Williams, 37, was jailed for at least two years following the attack on April 14 last year.
He will now be released following an appeal.
The victim was stabbed with a 30-centimetre kitchen knife causing cuts to his chest, hands and abdomen, and Williams chased him around his car.
The man drove to the station in a bid to seek protection after Williams pulled out the weapon from his pants.
The victim’s wife had been on the phone to police while driving to the station with Williams chasing after the them.
He crossed onto the wrong side of the road near Hume and Lawrence streets in a bid to cut off the car.
A senior sergeant put himself between the two men to stop the attack.
The blade of the knife hit the victim’s ribs which prevented it penetrating his chest cavity and damaging vital organs.
Williams had ice and Diazepam in his system at the time.
His brother-in-law decided against providing a victim impact statement to the Wodonga County Court to avoid any further animosity in the family.
“He is still struggling with the injury that he suffered and the circumstances of how it has occurred,” Detective Senior Constable Ray Causer told the court in February.
“It is affecting his family.”
The court heard Williams has paranoid schizophrenia, with multiple Nolan House admissions.
He was admitted in March 2016 after acting bizarrely at a shopping centre while armed with knives, scissors and a screwdriver.
While he has few issues when he is taking his medication and avoiding drugs, his condition deteriorated significantly when he stopped the medication and used ice.
He had been transfixed on the belief the victim was spitting in his food, calling him names, and threatening to kill and bury him before the stabbing.
A Supreme Court appeal on Wednesday reduced Williams’ jail term from a two-year minimum, three years and six months maximum sentence, to a five-year community corrections order.
The Supreme Court judges said the best way to deal with Williams was with a regime to keep his paranoid schizophrenia under control.