"COVID coppers" tried to "coax" a drug-affected man to leave his unit after he swung an axe at his neighbour during an aggravated burglary, a court has heard.
Jayke Steven John Fleury appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to aggravated burglary, using an offensive weapon likely to cause grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, trafficking cannabis and having a prohibited weapon.
The court heard that the burglary and offensive weapon offences last September involved Fleury being armed with an axe and going downstairs to kick in a neighbour's front door before swinging the weapon at the victim a number of times.
Four months prior, police went to his residence after reports of a disturbance.
Fleury presented to officers in an "emotional state", swearing at them, before throwing a lighter that struck one of the police officers in the head.
He was then tasered and arrested.
Fleury's defence lawyer, Taden Kelliher, played police body-worn footage related to the two incidents to the court as a way to show how drugs affected him.
Mr Kelliher said the video related to the burglary, which began recording after the offending, was part of a COVID team trying "to coax" Fleury out of the residence.
The video showed Fleury hopping onto his upper-level unit's balcony ledge before police officers yelled at him.
One officer said "that's silly" and "we're going to come up and talk to you, I promise".
He also told Fleury that other officers there were "COVID coppers like us" before the offender hopped down from the ledge.
Agreed facts for the drug trafficking offence states that in July 2019, police executed a search warrant at a Gungahlin unit where he stayed and found about 1kg of cannabis.
Officers also found a can of prohibited capsicum spray and forensic testing of the seized items revealed Fleury's left thumb print on one of the bags of drugs.
During his bail application on Tuesday, the 36-year-old needed to show special or exceptional circumstances that would favour the granting of bail.
His lawyer, Mr Kelliher, said he intended to apply for a drug and alcohol order assessment and took steps, including moving all of his matters to the Supreme Court to "alleviate any barrier" - towards that.
Mr Kelliher said, however, that they received a notice that an assessment could not be done because the drug and alcohol sentencing list was now full.
He also said another factor was that no rehabilitation centres in the ACT were taking in direct referrals from the jail and, therefore, his client, who was said to have a high chance of being accepted into one, needed to be in the community.
"There is a high probability he'd be accepted into a day program with anticipation he would transition to a full-time residential rehabilitation program," the defence lawyer said.
Another factor was that he had a "very comprehensive relapse prevention plan" and that he had taken steps to contact support services.
Mr Kelliher also said Fleury's partner, who was in court, offered a surety of $2500.
"He is putting everything on the line essentially to demonstrate to the court he is serious about his rehabilitation," he said.
Justice Michael Elkaim asked Crown prosecutor Keegan Lee if that information made a difference to his opposition to bail.
"No, your honour," Mr Lee said.
"Given the nature of the offences and Mr Fleury's criminal history, it is inevitable he'd receive a term of imprisonment," he said.
Mr Lee also said Fleury was already on court orders at the time of the burglary and police assault.
Justice Elkaim said he did not find the factors - alone or combined - special or exceptional.
With Fleury scheduled for sentencing on May 2, Justice Elkaim said the offender's "main problem" is that he would likely receive lengthy jail terms "so that to let him out would be to allow him to go out for two weeks and then straight back into prison".
"When one combines that with his history, the chances of him getting bail becomes almost zero. Accordingly the application is refused," Justice Elkaim said.
His partner began crying and started yelling towards the judge.
She said "it's wrong" and named other people before the courts, saying they "could walk [out of court]".
