REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Wednesday July 17, 1985

A MAN wielding a long-bladed kitchen knife at officers in the Surfers Paradise police station repeatedly threatened to kill someone and asked to be executed before being overpowered at gunpoint, it was alleged in a court.

The man told police his girlfriend had “run out on him” and had not paid the electricity bill, it was alleged.

The Southport Magistrates Court heard the unemployed 34-year-old man entered the police station at 8.45pm.

He allegedly told Constable Therese Goodwin his girlfriend had left him and he “wanted to kill somebody”.

“The defendant said he had phoned the police on five occasions and no one had given him any help,” police prosecutor Sergeant Ken Waterfield told the court.

Const. Goodwin told the defendant they had not received any such phone calls that night. “The defendant said he wished to be executed. His girlfriend had run out on him and hadn’t paid the electricity bill.”

Sgt Waterfield said the man then took a 27cm-long kitchen knife from his trouser pocket and made a slashing movement towards both Const. Goodwin and Sergeant Len Reynolds.

He said the man was told to put the knife down several times but refused to do so.

Meanwhile, Fijian rugby union player Asaeli Hughes couldn’t stop smiling and it was little wonder. It was not often he got the chance to “manhandle” the likes of Sea World water skier Debbie Downs. Asaeli, who spent a lay day on the Gold Coast with the touring Fijian team, said it beat crash tackling the opposing players.