West Albury man's story just cannot be believed, magistrate says on giving him jail term

Sitting in Albury Local Court behind the bar table, Newman ran his fingers across the top of his closely cropped skull.

He also brushed his lightly whiskered face in the same move, but magistrate Richard Funston cut him off before he could continue with his story.

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There was barely a "slim chance" of truth to his claim, Mr Funston said on Monday, that police stopped him and found the razor just minutes after he got the blade from a relative.

And to cast further doubt on Newman's tale, Mr Funston highlighted the 40-year-old's convictions for weapons offences, including time spent in jail.

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Prosecutor Sergeant Andrew Pike made clear the police's stance that nothing Newman said could really be believed.

"He's changed his story three times on this," Sergeant Pike told Mr Funston.

Newman - who later, on sentence, told Mr Funston that he had completed an anger-management course - was hostile in his reaction to Sergeant Pike's submission.

He said, in an unrestrained outburst over which his partner tried to tell him to be quiet while adding comments in his support, that it was the police who were changing their story.

Mr Funston rejected Newman's comments, including that he was stopped only 20 metres from home though without explaining how this was even relevant.

"Show a bit of respect to the court," he told the West Albury man.

"And the court hasn't come down in the last shower."

Newman pleaded guilty to custody of a knife in a public place over the May 12 incident.

He was put on a four-month intensive corrections order.

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