A knife-wielding man grabbed a terrified golfer in a headlock and threatened to kill the woman, while holding a blade to her throat, after crashing a stolen car and running from police.
Details of the June 2022 incident were revealed in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday, when a judge detailed the "palpable" pain Jacob Daniel Greentree had caused the victim.
An agreed statement of facts shows Greentree, who was subject to several suspended jail sentences in Western Australia at the time, committed two sets of crimes in Canberra that month.
The first, in the early hours of June 11, involved him breaking into a Honda Civic in Dickson and stealing a set of keys from the car.
The second unfolded nine days later, when police spotted Greentree, 26, driving a stolen Holden Commodore in Kingston.
Acting Justice Richard Refshauge said Greentree drove "erratically" in an attempt to evade police, driving directly at a person on the wrong side of the road and mounting a footpath.
Police lost sight of the Commodore but quickly found it again in a Yarralumla car park.
When officers tried to stop Greentree again, he went off-road and headed across some grass towards the Yarralumla Dog Park, where he eventually crashed the stolen car into a fence.
The 26-year-old then got out and ran through the dog park to the Royal Canberra Golf Club.
With police still in pursuit, Greentree grabbed a golfer on the course and took her hostage.
"[He] produced a knife and held the knife to her throat whilst utilising her as a shield between himself and police," the agreed facts state.
When police aimed their Tasers at him, Greentree yelled: "No one move or I'll kill her."
Officers ordered him at least four times to let the woman go and drop the knife before he complied, allowing police to handcuff him.
After a search revealed he had a small amount of methamphetamine on him, Greentree told police he had used "two points" of the drug earlier that day.
Officers formed the opinion he was so impaired he could not possibly have been in proper control of the Commodore, noting he kept falling asleep and crying while in police custody.
Greentree, who was subsequently remanded in custody, eventually pleaded guilty to nine charges.
These included aggravated dangerous driving and making a demand with a threat to kill.
Acting Justice Refshauge sentenced him on Tuesday to three years and 11 months in jail.
The judge backdated the term to reflect the fact Greentree had spent the last eight-and-a-half months behind bars on remand, then suspended it.
He did so after Greentree agreed to enter into an 18-month drug and alcohol treatment order, which required him to travel directly from court to a residential rehabilitation facility.
The judge was particularly alarmed by Greentree having "suddenly attacked" a woman who was "innocently playing golf ... without any inkling of what was about to happen".
"Grabbing a golfer off a golf course and threatening her with a knife is an enormously serious offence," Acting Justice Refshauge told Greentree.
He indicated he had read a victim impact statement from the golfer, whose pain he said was still "palpable" when she wrote it nearly four months after the incident.
In her statement, the "hypervigilant" victim described how she now felt "constantly anxious" and "helpless" around men, which had badly impacted on her social life.
The judge also had to consider the personal circumstances of Greentree, who wrote to the court to say what he had done was "wrong from every aspect".
The court heard Greentree, a Wiradjuri man, had a "very depressing" criminal history that had long revolved around him offending to support a methamphetamine addiction.
Acting Justice Refshauge said Greentree was now "at a crossroads", with the opportunity to rid his life of drugs and crime in order to be a good role model for his two-year-old son.
The judge noted Greentree had taken many positive steps towards a better future while remanded in custody, saying the offender appeared "capable and motivated" to change his ways.
"Good luck," Acting Justice Refshauge said, pointing at Greentree across the courtroom.
"Make this work. And, technical legal word, don't stuff up."
