No jail time will be served by a Beechworth man who put a policeman at risk of injury by deliberately ramming his car into the officer's marked vehicle.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Saxon Willis, 30, has instead been placed on a two-year community corrections order with the condition to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and mental health treatment.
County Court Judge Paul Lacava said he accepted that the incident on March 10 this year occurred in the context of a marriage breakdown, with Willis realising the relationship was over when his ex-wife called police and the officer arrived at his house.
He floored the accelerator of his Nissan Navara ute, spun the wheels and drove into the bull-bar of the police four-wheel-drive, causing it to move back 30 centimetres.
On his way out of Beechworth, Willis firstly T-boned a Toyota Prado when turning onto Buckland Gap Road.
Two kilometres down the road, he then lost control and ended up on the wrong side of the road, narrowly avoiding a collision with another vehicle.
He fled into bushland, where he was later located and arrested by police.
MORE NEWS FROM COURT:
Willis pleaded guilty to intentionally exposing an emergency worker to risk while driving and reckless conduct endangering life.
"You were lucky that your actions did not injure the unfortunate police officer," Judge Lacava said.
"You were remorseful and admitted your behaviour was stupid.
"This offending is clearly serious.
"Using your motor vehicle, you clearly subjected (the) police officer to risk of injury and you recklessly drove the vehicle in such a way that other road users were also exposed to risk of injury."
You were lucky that your actions did not injure the unfortunate police officer.
- Judge Paul Lacava
He said if the police officer had been injured in the incident, Willis would have been sentenced to a mandatory jail term of at least two years.
The Crown prosecutor had asked the court to impose a jail sentence anyway.
Psychologists found Willis was "diagnostically complex", with anxiety and depression and a history of post-traumatic stress disorder from childhood abuse, and had an "out of body experience" when he rammed the police car.
He was assessed as a low risk of reoffending, but in need of long-term treatment.
"I accept that this offending occured at a time where your dosage of medication had changed and this could have impacted your mental state at the time," Judge Lacava said.