Seven-month stretch for Ben Robert Quigley over seven-hour standoff with police

Ben Robert Quigley had also recently served jail terms in the community for NSW driving offences.

The 32-year-old was trying to avoid his arrest by Albury police, acting on two warrants issued in Wodonga Magistrate's Court over domestic violence allegations, when he took to the roof of Albury's Burvale Motor Inn on September 4.

Quigley stood for most of his sentencing hearing in Albury Local Court on Wednesday, October 25, because of a severe back injury suffered when he jumped off a roof while trying to flee Wodonga police in February.

He appeared via a video link to Junee jail, where he had spent 52 days on remand, bail refused, and will remain there until released on parole on December 3.

Quigley, the court heard previously, had armed himself with a one-metre metal bar he found on top of the motel, from where he acted in an "aggressive and combative" fashion as police negotiators tried to talk him down.

"Come up here and I'll slit my throat with this and I'll have you," he threatened the Albury police sergeant who had the job of trying to diffuse the situation.

It was only when it began to rain that he dropped the bar and got down off the roof. Another man had joined him in facing-off police.

The sentencing hearing began with magistrate Sally McLaughlin asking prosecutor Sergeant Andrew Pike whether the elements of the charge were met in the moment Quigley held the bar and made his threat, or whether it applied for the duration of the siege.

Ms McLaughlin said the longer it was, the more serious the offence became.

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She briefly stood the matter down late in the afternoon so Sergeant Pike and defence lawyer Glenn Moody could take further instructions.

When the hearing resumed, Sergeant Pike accepted a point raised by Ms McLaughlin that Quigley did not specifically threaten police, rather he promised self-harm if they tried to get him off the roof.

Sergeant Pike said that regarding the metal bar, "my understanding is he was in possession of it for most if not all of the time".

Nevertheless, he said the prosecution was willing to accept the charge was made out on the basis of that moment where Quigley had the bar while making his threat.

Quigley's first actions on the roof of picking up other unknown objects and throwing these over the side were not contained in the charge.

After being sentenced, the possibility was raised of him being arrested on serving his non-parole period of three months.

That came with a NSW Police application for an apprehension warrant, in relation to a warrant "issued in another state".

But Sergeant Pike then submitted to Ms McLaughlin that there might be an issue with police trying to enforce such a warrant at that time.

That was because Quigley would still, while on parole, remain under the custody of authorities who would then have to give permission for him to be taken to Victoria.

With that, Sergeant Pike withdrew the warrant application for such an extradition.

"He can be re-arrested on his release from Junee, we can re-start that process then," he said.

Ms McLaughlin said she was "guarded" on Quigley's prospects for rehabilitation.

"It appears Mr Quigley will require intensive treatment in relation to his drug issues," she said.

The court also had no choice, she said, but to impose a jail term on the charge of using an offensive instrument to avoid lawful detention.

Given Quigley's criminal record, she "was not satisfied" the seven-month term could be better served in the community by way of an intensive corrections order.

Ms McLaughlin said that while Quigley had pleaded guilty at an early stage, "there does not seem to be any remorse".

"There is no insight in relation to what is contained in the (sentencing assessment) report with the use of illicit substances and the effect that this has on his behaviour," she said.

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Ms McLaughlin said Quigley had told the NSW Community Corrections author of the report that he believed he should not have been arrested over the Victorian matters.

It was also revealed he was using illicit substances, specifically methamphetamine and the party drug gamma hydroxybutyrate - or GHB - in the time leading up to the siege, "but he did not believe that impacted on his offending".

While Mr Moody pointed to Quigley having issues with psychosis and post-traumatic stress disorder, Ms McLaughlin found there was no reduction in his moral culpability "in any meaningful way" from his mental health issues.

Mr Moody said the back injury had forced Quigley to give up work, so would welcome any rehabilitation as part of supervision under his preferred sentence of an intensive corrections order.

He especially wanted to address his mental health and drug issues, as well as get physiotherapy work on his back, so he could get back in the workplace "in a much better place".

Ms McLaughlin said she accepted Quigley would have suffered difficulties during his incarceration "because of that physical issue".

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