OFFICER ASSAULTED DURING SEARCH
A TOOWOOMBA man who assaulted a police officer who was trying to remove a bag of drugs from his buttocks with a pair of tongs has been jailed for two years.
Corey Rainer Maxwell had been trying to avoid police while driving a stolen car which was eventually stopped when police deployed tyre deflation devices on the street on the night of March 8.
Arrested and taken from the vehicle, police officers conducted a pat-down search of Maxwell during which they found a clip seal bag containing 4.581g of substance of which 3.384g was found to be pure methylamphetamine, Toowoomba Supreme Court was told on Thursday.
While searching the 31year-old, a police officer noticed an object protruding from Maxwell’s buttocks, and he was handcuffed and taken to the Toowoomba Police Station watch house to be searched in a more “private setting”, Crown prosecutor Emily Coley told the court.
However, when one of the officers approached with a set of tongs, Maxwell became agitated and struck out, hitting the officer in the face causing him pain and swelling and leaving a red mark, Ms Coley said.
The second bag of suspected meth extracted from Maxwell’s buttocks had less substance than the other bag but the contents hadn’t been analysed, she said.
“That’s not surprising in the circumstances,” Justice David Boddice said.
Maxwell pleaded guilty to possessing meth above the 2g schedule and serious assault of a police officer on duty causing bodily harm.
Justice Boddice said sentencing Maxwell was complicated because he had been sentenced for 38 offences by the Toowoomba Magistrates Court on November 8 which included 11 offences committed in conjunction with these two offences before the Supreme Court.
Justice Boddice said had all offences been dealt with together Maxwell might have been looking at a three-year jail term as a head sentence but since the Magistrates Court had sentenced him to 12 months he would reduce the Supreme Court sentence.
Noting Maxwell had spent 245 days in pre-sentence custody, most of which had been declared by the Magistrates Court, Justice Boddice sentenced him to two years in jail but ordered he be eligible to apply for release on parole as from December 8.