Aaron Heather faces sentencing for breaking officer’s nose
A ‘family man’, who mistakenly took ‘ice’ for just a few months, thought the devil was coming for him as it’s revealed what led him to breaking a police woman’s nose.
Central Coast
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The insidious effects of the drug `ice’ have been laid bare in the sentencing of an otherwise upstanding “family man” who’s life spiralled out of control before he broke a police officer’s nose.
Aaron James Heather, 43, of San Remo, faced a sentencing hearing at Gosford District Court on Friday, which heard he began taking what he thought was `speed’ in November 2018 after his “best mate” died two months earlier.
Within just a few months he became paranoid about religion and believed “the devil” was coming for him and his family.
The court heard his wife began to worry about what he was saying and warned him he was not taking `speed’ but the drug `ice’.
Giving evidence, Heather said he had been prescribed antidepressants in his 30s but stopped taking them after the death of his friend.
“I just started using drugs and thought it was benefiting me more than the (antidepressants),” he said.
“There was many effects, I was not aware of them until my partner told me it was affecting me mentally.”
The court heard by March 2019, Heather was hooked on ice and people were beginning to worry about his increasingly erratic behaviour.
On March 17, his wife again expressed her concern and Heather told the court he “ate” 3-4g of the drug “to get rid of it”.
Instead it sent him into a drug-induced psychosis, which saw him shave his head, drive to Bathurst looking for churches and back to a house at Budgewoi, where he broke in and grabbed a young boy by the arm and told him the child was “his leader”.
Heather was arrested and taken back to Wyong Police Station where he declined to be interviewed.
About 9.30pm on March 18, 2019, Sergeant Rachael Robbins offered him a cup of tea and when she opened the door he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head down on his knee twice.
“(The officer) heard a `crunching sound’ and could see blood dripping onto the floor of the charge room,” an agreed statement of police facts read.
He fled the charge room but was eventually tackled to the ground.
Sgt Robbins was taken to hospital where she received stitches and later underwent plastic surgery but was left with “a persisting degree of nasal obstruction”.
Heather pleaded guilty to 19 offences including assaulting an officer, exposing himself in view of a school, breaking and entering and inflicting grievous bodily harm.
The court heard before he started taking ice he was a man of “otherwise good character” with no criminal record and a devoted father, who coached one of his children’s soccer teams.
But within months he became convinced his friend had been taken by the devil.
“I started to think the devil was going to take me and my family,” Heather told the court from the witness stand.
He said he should have listened to his wife and sought help but he was “too weak” and instead consumed the drugs to “get rid of them”.
“I should have flushed them down the toilet, I made the worst decision of my life,” he said.
Heather told the court it took two or three months in custody before the drugs left his system and he realised the thoughts about the devil were “not real”.
He said it was then he started to realise what he had done and how much pain he had caused so many people, including his wife who through his incarceration he had left “a single mum”.
“I’m totally disgusted with myself,” he said.
“I’m so sorry and eternally sorry. I really cannot understand what I did and I regret it every day.”
Judge David Wilson accepted Heather was otherwise a man of good character and demonstrated “genuine remorse”.
Heather will be sentenced on November 27,