Drugged-up bacon delusion

Toowoomba court hears of man’s imagined chase while high on meth

A DRUGGED up driver had run into the Toowoomba Police Station screaming that “bacon-flavoured people” were chasing him, the city’s Magistrates Court has been told.

Matthew Shane Koina told police he had driven from his home in Mort St through Toowoomba’s CBD to the police station in the car of the “bacon-flavoured people” who had taken his car.

Police prosecutor Cameron Francis said the 28-year-old arrived at the police station about 2.20am, August 28, yelling and screaming about “bacon-flavoured people”.

He told police he wasn’t sure if he had hurt anyone en route to the police station, he said.

Asked by police officers if he had taken any substances, Koina replied that he had taken 200ml of seroquel and “some ice” over the previous two days because he couldn’t sleep and he needed to sleep because he was working the next day, Mr Francis said.

Police took Koina to the Toowoomba Hospital for a mental health assessment and a blood sample to see if he had drugs in his system at the time.

His solicitor Phil Stainton told the court his client’s plea of guilty to driving while under the influence of a drug was based on his client’s acceptance that he was under the influence at the time.

Mr Stainton said his client worked in a local bakery and had spent stints in the Acute Mental Health Unit as a result of drug use in the past.

A Queensland Corrective Services officer told the court Koina was on parole but the order was not being suspended as he had been referred to, and was receiving counselling from, Lives Lived Well to address his drug and other issues.

Magistrate Kay Ryan described the case as “unusual”.

“These are quite unusual facts and obviously you were under the influence of substances,” she told Koina.

Noting he would be under the strict supervision of parole officers for another 13 to 14 months, Ms Ryan fined Koina $1200 and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for 12 months.