Martins Keyen: Macquarie University student attacked cop with knife
A knife-wielding masters student who attacked a police officer, cutting his bicep before being tasered multiple times said he felt sorry but was traumatised by the incident.
Northern District Times
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A knife-wielding student accused of stabbing a police officer before being tasered has claimed he suffers “trauma” from the incident, a court heard.
Martins Noel Keyen, 25, was tight-lipped as he fronted Downing Centre District Court with his support person on Monday for his sentence hearing.
Keyen who is a Nigerian student at Macquarie University had been on a student visa when he got in a melee with police officers which resulted in him producing a knife and cutting a police officer’s bicep on Culloden Road in Marsfield last August.
He has pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting an officer in duty and one related charge of being in custody of a knife in a public place.
In court today, his lawyer Daniel Pace told the court Keyen “still felt sorry” after he was arrested.
Reading out Keyen’s written submission, tendered to the court, his lawyer said he “did not intend to portray himself as the victim” but said he still “carried trauma” from what happened.
Mr Pace said two medical specialist reports, tendered in court, suggest a “link” between his mental health of bipolar disorder and the offences.
In his submissions, he said Keyen’s “youth” and “immaturity” being 24 at the time should be taken into account.
He also claimed the judge should be “careful” in the crown’s submission that a “stabbing” had occurred saying it was not premeditated and that the wound was described as a scratch and cut.
Yet the crown prosecutor slammed the defence’s submissions saying the officer was not “scratched” yet wounded with a knife.
“It is not an injury occasioned by a fist fight but occasioned by a weapon,” she told the court.
She said the crime was towards the “mid-range” in seriousness as an officer was assaulted.
“It has taken impart in the middle of the road. There was significant risk to the officers who were on duty,” she told the court.
The crown prosecutor also disputed the defence submissions on Keyen’s “youth” saying he was an international student studying his masters.
“This is not an immature man but a well-travelled 24-year-old.”
Judge Ian McClintock told the court that an accused’s youth was normally taken into account when there was a “limit of cognition” which he said “nearly doesn’t apply here.”
“His thought process was taken by bipolar,” he told the court.
The court also heard from Keyen’s support person Megan Guenther who houses the accused.
Ms Guenther said she had not met him before the incident yet was told about the situation from her niece before she visited him along with her niece after the incident at the Royal North Shore Hospital.
“As an older person I thought I should go and find out what was happening,” she told the court.
She described him as “bewildered” and “subdued” when she first saw him in hospital.
“I felt he was a young man away from home and anyone he knew… it all affected him a lot,” she told the court.
Ms Guenther said she was told by a case worker that he would go to jail unless he had somewhere to live before she decided to take him in.
“I thought this is the opportunity for us (her family) to help somebody. It was either us or jail.”
While he was “quiet” at the start, she said he is now “part of the family” and that they haven’t had any issues.
When his lawyer asked if she thought he was a danger to the community she claimed she wouldn’t have him living with her children in her home if she thought he was.
Judge McClintock adjourned the case saying it was a matter he had to “give some thought to.”
Keyen, who is on bail, will return to court in late July for sentence.