Mark Cras threatened his neighbour with a knife, threatened and assaulted police in Yerrinbool

A neighbourly dispute escalated after a woman came home to find a man sitting outside her property drinking a beer, waving a knife around and calling her a ‘snitch dog’.

A neighbourly dispute turned ugly after a Yerrinbool man threatened his neighbour with a knife, kicked a cop in the chest, and called another police officer “a slut and a mole”.

Mark Robert Cras, 49, appeared in Moss Vale Local Court via video link to plead guilty to intimidation, custody of a knife, and intimidating, resisting and assaulting a police officer.

At around 5pm on October 14 last year, police facts reveal Cras’s neighbour drove home to find him sitting outside his property with a beer in his hand, staring at her. According to the facts, the victim noticed the Yerrinbool man was holding a black-handled knife with a blade around 10cm long, which he was waving in the air.

As the victim got out of the car, the facts show Cras stood up and started shouting threats like “I’m coming for you” and “I’m going to end this now”. He called the victim “snitch dog” and said he’d been waiting three years to confront her.

Mark Robert Cras threatened his neighbour with a knife in Yerrinbool. Picture: Google Maps

According to the police facts, Cras stood in the victim’s driveway and told her the police couldn’t protect her.

“When they go, this is coming for you tonight,” he told her, gesturing to his knife.

The facts state he then said he would be “a good boy” and went inside, until the police arrived at 5.45pm. He was arrested at 6.30pm but argued with police and questioned their authority to arrest him.

A police officer found the knife hidden on Cras while he struggled with police and threatened to sue them, the facts show. Police state he continued to struggle as the police officers tried to put him in the back of the police vehicle, and wouldn’t remove his feet so they could close the door.

When officers tried to relocate Cras to a different vehicle, the court heard he lashed out and kicked an officer in the chest. Police facts show he was eventually brought to the ground and arrested, but his threats continued when he was brought to the police station.

He called an officer at the station a “dog, c***, slut and a mole” and told her repeatedly she would pay, according to the recording captured on body worn video.

“I’m going to come after you, find out where you live and you are going to pay,” he told the officer.

The court heard Cras will erect a fence between the neighbours and enter his property down a side path in order to minimise interaction with his neighbours and to “prevent any incidents like this happening again”.

Mark Robert Cras appeared in Moss Vale Local Court via video link on October 18. Picture: Wesley Lonergan

Magistrate Mark Douglass told the court the offences were “very serious examples, in my view, of offending”.

“The victim was at a premises where she should have felt safe,” he said.

“He was brandishing a weapon capable of injuring and the words uttered suggested a use of that weapon.”

Magistrate Douglass sentenced Cras to 20 months in jail with a non-parole period of 11 months. He backdated the sentence to October 15 last year, when the Yerrinbool man was first taken into custody, so he is now eligible for release on parole.

His lawyer told the court Cras will be attending a rehabilitation program, which Magistrate Douglass encouraged when he directed him to participate in treatment programs.