Henry Raymond Getawan loses Court of Appeal application following Townsville Magistrates Court sentence

A man who already attempted to appeal his jail sentence and failed has taken another swing by pleading insanity after he bit a police officer at a Townsville service station.

Henry Raymond Getawan loses Court of Appeal application following Townsville Magistrates Court sentence. Picture: Supplied.

A man who was originally sentenced for biting a police officer as they attempted to transfer him to hospital has had another shot at appealing his sentence, this time pleading ‘insanity’ and asking for the charges to be dropped.

Henry Raymond Getawan who now chooses to go by the name Israel Judah was intercepted by police at a Caltex service station on Ross River Rd, August 7 2022 as police observed him to be adversely affected by drugs, according to the outline in the Court of Appeal application.

The application detailed that police contacted paramedics to assess the man who needed to be out of his vehicle to do so, and when an officer tried to move him he bit the policeman on the tricep.

Doctors said the man suffered ‘serotonin syndrome’ which is a reaction to consuming drugs which the man admitted to when he said he had a “cocktail of drugs” which included at least a gram of methamphetamine.

Getawan pleaded guilty to serious assault, obstructing police and possessing tainted property in Townsville Magistrates Court and was sentenced to 15 months jail and 40 hours of community service as he was also dealt with for breaching a suspended sentence.

The magistrate declared 125 days the man spent in pre-sentence custody as time served.

The man made an application to appeal the sentence before Judge John Coker and represented himself with the argument that the magistrate did not take into account his mental and physical health at the time of sentencing.

Getawan despite leaving the ‘Grounds of Appeal’ section of the application blank was given the opportunity to verbalise the grounds.

“Quite simply, (Getawan) suggests that whilst he entered a plea of guilty, it was a situation where it should be the case that the ‘charges should be dismissed’,” Judge Coker said.

“As the matter progressed there was an acceptance or understanding on the part of (Getawan) that the matter was proceeding upon his plea of guilty and that he understood the plea of guilty.”

His Honour also noted that the magistrate imposed a lower sentence than most of the cases they were referred to and concluded it was a reasonable penalty.

In the most recent application heard on November 12 this year in the Brisbane Court of Appeal, once again self-represented Getawan, applied to have his charges of serious assault and obstruct police dropped, claiming both the magistrate and District Court judge did not consider his mental health history and pleaded ‘insanity’ at the time of offending.

He also asked to submit new documents in the form of pathology results which showed he experienced hyperglycaemia at the time of the offending, which had not been submitted at the time he was sentenced.

It was acknowledged the documents were not evidence of what Getawan was trying to argue before the court and it would require medical opinion.

It was also pointed out by the Court of Appeal judge that this was the man’s third judicial hearing and that both the magistrate and District Court judge acknowledged the mental health documents submitted to the court and that he pleaded guilty already.

“In any event (Getawan) appears to have a misunderstanding that he had a defence of insanity available to him and could have contested the charges on that basis,” the judge said.

The application was once again rejected.

Originally published as Henry Raymond Getawan loses Court of Appeal application following Townsville Magistrates Court sentence