Martins Keyen: Macquarie University student accused of stabbing police officer faces court
A Macquarie University creative writing student who stabbed a police officer in Sydney’s north — despite being tasered five times — has pleaded guilty.
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A knife-wielding Nigerian student who has pleaded guilty to stabbing a police officer near Macquarie University will face his sentence hearing in June.
Martins Noel Keyen, 25, from Gordon, was slapped with five charges last August including assaulting an officer in duty; wounding a policy officer; being in custody of a knife in a public place and armed with an intent to commit an indictable offence.
His charges relating to wounding an officer in duty and being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence have since been dropped.
According to police fact sheets, Keyen was studying at Macquarie University on a student visa, which expired on August 30 and he was in the process of obtaining a bridging visa at the time.
Police will allege the student was walking on Culloden Rd in Marsfield with a wheelie suitcase in one hand and a knife in the other.
Three constables, Rankin, Flynn and Burnes were patrolling the area in the early hours of August 21 when they allegedly heard yelling nearby.
Constable Flynn left Rankin and Burnes to investigate and walked south along Culloden Rd.
As Flynn approached the intersection of Culloden and Waterloo roads he saw Keyen wearing dark clothing walking towards oncoming traffic in the southbound lane while holding a black travel bag.
At this time, the police facts tendered to the court state the constable did not know Keyen had a 20cm peeling knife concealed in his right hand.
He told Keyen to “get off the road” and ushered him off towards the footpath, yet Mr Keyen allegedly continued to walk in front of traffic.
Flynn yelled again to get off the road and approached the student before noticing he was allegedly in an “agitated” state and yelling incoherent words.
Keyen then allegedly said “Are you coming at me?”
Flynn replied: “Yes I’m coming at you. You need to get off the road.”
Constable Flynn then placed his hand onto Keyen’s upper right shoulder and guided him off the road towards the footpath.
But the officer suddenly felt a “thud” to the centre of his police vest hitting his taser holster.
Accordingly to police facts, Flynn saw Keyen allegedly strike at his chest and moved away realising he was holding a knife in his right hand with his fist clenched tight.
At this time constable Rankin approached the pair not knowing the tension that had escalated.
Flynn yelled out to warn Rankin “Knife Knife — Tom he’s got a knife.”
Constable Rankin saw that Keyen had been waving his knife around in his right arm before Flynn removed his taser from its holster and activated it.
Flynn yelled: “Drop the knife, drop the knife” before the student allegedly advanced towards him, police documents state.
Keyen was then hit with a taser, but managed to get back to his feet, still holding the knife and again went towards the constable, police facts state.
The third officer, constable Burnes then rushed to the scene and a melee broke out, resulting in four more taser shots to Keyen, who was arrested and taken to hospital for a mental health assessment.
As a result of the incident, constable Rankin was taken to hospital suffering a wound so deep that it contacted the bone area in his bicep.
The police facts allege in a police interview, Mr Keyen said he owned the knife, but did not remember the incident due to suffering a significant mental health episode which had been escalating for “a number of weeks.”
Keyen, who has pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer on duty, is an aspiring writer studying a master in creative industries at Macquarie University according to his LinkedIn profile.
He did not appear in court for a brief mention at the Downing Centre District Court on Friday.
In court, Keyen’s lawyer Mr Nicholas Ashby told the court that his client’s guilty plea was maintained and that they were awaiting his psychiatric report which was to be completed by early June.
Judge Helen Syme said the offender was to file and serve all documentary material including expert reports a week before his sentence.
“Bail is to continue until that date. Hopefully in a position to be dealt with personally,” Judge Syme told the court.
The matter was adjourned to June for his sentence hearing which is expected to take two hours.