Allan Gerrard Clarke jailed for threatening two police officers with weapons at Narrunga

A female officer said the moment she was threatened with knives and a huge wooden cross by a thug was the most frightening experience of her career.

Two police officers were left traumatised during a drunken thug’s 50 minute rampage where he threatened them with knives and a huge wooden cross.

Allan Gerrard Clarke, 37, was jailed after a female officer said it was the most frightening experience of her decades long career.

During sentencing, the District Court heard Clarke went to a house at Narrung on September 12, 2023.

Clarke and the man who lived there had previously been friends but issues had developed between them.

“You used a golf club to smash the front and driver’s windows of his car that was parked outside the front of his house,” Judge Liesl Kudelka said.

Just before midnight, two police officers, Officer Schumacher and Officer Parsons, arrived to an “aggressive” Clarke.

Allan Clarke was jailed for threatening to cause harm to the two police officers. Picture: Olena Sakhatska/iStock

He walked towards the officers with a large butcher’s knife, which he was repeatedly told to put down.

The court heard a woman managed to take the knife off him before he went inside the house and came back outside with a 1.5m wooden cross.

“You then charged at Officer Schumacher by taking a couple of quick steps towards him and lifting the cross in a javelin-type throw motion,” Judge Kudelka said.

The court heard Clarke eventually threw the cross away but he had another knife with a 20cm blade in his pants.

“You walked towards the police with it causing them to have to back away,” Judge Kudelka said.

“You then made loud growling sounds and continued to yell your demand at them to shoot you.”

At 12.49am two additional officers arrived on the scene and Clarke eventually surrendered and entered the police van.

Clarke pleaded guilty to threatening to cause harm and property damage.

In his victim impact statement Officer Schumacher, who had been a police officer for about 16 years at the time, said the offending caused him to transfer out of Tailem Bend.

“All he wanted to do was go home to his wife and three small children,” Judge Kudelka said.

“He says you have destroyed his love of his career.”

The court heard Officer Schumacher now works behind a desk because that is where he feels safe.

“In a sense, it would have been an easy option to draw his firearm and direct it at you,” Judge Kudelka said.

“He says he will be forever damaged by that night.”

Officer Parsons said she was shocked and horrified on the night of the offending as they had no immediate backup.

“In 24 years as a police officer, she describes this as the most frightening experience she has had,” Judge Kudelka said.

“She honestly did not know if she was going to make it home to her family.”

The court heard Clarke, who was intoxicated on the night of the offending, had written a letter of apology to the officers.

Clarke was sentenced to one year and six months jail, with a non-parole period of 11 months.

The sentence was backdated to September 14.

Originally published as Allan Gerrard Clarke jailed for threatening two police officers with weapons at Narrunga