Two brothers shot by police during an armed incident at Barnawartha North are a step closer to learning their fate.
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Joshua and Joel Clavell both fronted court yesterday following the incident at Richardsons Bend on June 12 last year.
Joshua was being sought by counter terrorism police for breaching a corrections order and was shot after driving a Holden Barina into an unmarked police car.
The impact pushed the white Holden Commodore backwards and threw an officer into rocks.
Joel Clavell screamed that he wanted to become a martyr and threatened to cut off the heads of police officers.
Attempts to subdue Joel with capsicum spray failed.
Police negotiated with him and said they couldn't help his injured brother unless he dropped his hatchet.
"I'll chop your head off you filthy mutt," he said.
A Rutherglen officer said his brother needed help.
"Put your gun down then, or shoot," he replied.
A Wodonga sergeant tasered him before he ran at officers with the hatchet.
He was shot by two officers and came close to dying, with one bullet grazing his heart.
A police officer likely saved his life by applying a tourniquet to his leg to stem bleeding from an artery.
The County Court heard Joel, who is the younger brother, was left with a permanent reminder of his actions through his injuries.
He requires ongoing physiotherapy and the court heard he failed to fully grasp the nature of his offending.
"He lacks, what the court might consider, insight," Judge Martine Marich said.
Despite the extreme nature of the incident, lawyer Melinda Walker said the younger of the pair had never had dealings with police and could have chosen not to get involved in the situation involving his brother.
"He hadn't done anything wrong at that stage," she said of the car crash.
"All he needed to do was put the hatchet down."
The younger man had converted to Islam at age 14, which lapsed, and reverted about a year before the incident.
Unlike Joshua, he wasn't on any watch lists.
Judge Marich said she couldn't find that religious extremism was an aggravating factor, but that the case was about an enduring animosity towards police.
Their father, Rodney Clavell, shot himself during a police siege at an Adelaide brothel in 2014.
There have been delays in sentencing the pair, but the judge said "I want to do it right, it's a simple as that", with "many moving parts" in the case which could affect the outcome.
The pair will return to court on August 14.
