Video footage of a violent stand-off at Bar Beach depicting a man launching an expletive-laden tirade at police before charging at them with a baseball bat, being tasered and struggling as he is arrested has been played in Newcastle District Court.
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The prosecution tendered the video on Thursday, when John Peter Collins was due to be sentenced after he previously pleaded guilty to seven charges - including using an offensive weapon to prevent lawful detention and aggravated break and enter.
The footage was recorded by a police officer as the dramatic incident unfolded.
It showed Collins being confronted by police inside a Memorial Drive unit complex, where he lived, on the evening of December 28, 2019.
Collins appeared agitated in the footage and was tasered by police before he fled downstairs and into a back courtyard area.
Officers on the other side of the back fence could be heard in the video telling Collins repeatedly over several minutes to drop the baseball bat he had picked up - which he was using to hit the door frame as he ranted about notorious Mexican drug lord El Chapo and accused officers of being paedophiles.
The vision showed the moment Collins charged at police with the bat - in which one officer hit the then 44-year-old again with a taser.
Despite the shock knocking him to the ground, the footage showed Collins struggle and scream as it took six police officers to detain him.
The stand-off in the courtyard came only minutes after an encounter with police in which Collins wrestled with them and assaulted a senior constable.
According to a statement of agreed facts tendered to the court, police were called to the scene after Collins forced his way into a neighbour's unit and used considerable force to push the man against a wall while he told him he was going to have sex with the man's wife.
Police arrived soon after, when Collins had kicked his way into another neighbouring unit - the female resident managed to flee.
When confronted, Collins told the two officers he was the "ultimate fighter" - a claim he repeated in the footage played in court - and threatened to kill them before he punched a senior constable in the face and kicked him in the ribs.
On Thursday, Judge Tim Gartelmann, SC, said the matter was "of some seriousness".
He granted an adjournment to the defence to allow more time for them to obtain appropriate medical reports and records in relation to Collins' mental state and left the sentencing hearing part-heard.
It will continue in Newcastle District Court on April 9.
Collins remains on bail.
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