Jackson Gibson-Sullivan attacks police at Aveo Springthorpe Macleod

A man who viciously attacked a female police officer outside a Macleod nursing home has been granted bail, on one condition.

A man savagely bashed a female police officer outside a Macleod nursing home, causing the Senior Constable to fear for her life.

Jackson Gibson-Sullivan, 30, fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, and pleaded guilty to charges including recklessly causing injury and theft of a motor vehicle.

Gibson-Sullivan punched the officer in the face four times and repeatedly kicked her as she tried to stop him driving while drug-affected just before 8.30am on February 8.

The court heard police had been called to the entrance of Macleod’s Aveo Springthorpe retirement centre after Gibson-Sullivan pulled up in a car and passed out behind the wheel.

Officers arrived about 16 minutes later to find him still asleep and the car —which had been stolen — still running.

The victim, a Senior Constable, removed the keys and threw them into a nearby carport.

Gibson-Sullivan then woke up and ran to grab the keys.

The victim tried to arrest him and stop him getting back in the car, but he pushed past her and lunged back into the driver’s seat.

The court heard as the victim tried to stop him from starting the car he kicked her aggressively and punched her in the face four times.

She managed to get Gibson-Sullivan out of the car, where he continued to resist arrest, before another officer rushed to help and he was handcuffed.

He was found to have stolen IDs and property on him and was unlicensed.

Gibson-Sullivan later told police he had taken GHB right before he parked the car.

The court heard his victim was left with heavily bruised legs, a cut lip, scratched forearms and sore ribs and thumb.

A victim impact statement read to the court revealed she had been so scared of Gibson-Sullivan’s aggression that she felt lucky to have walked away with the injuries she did.

“I felt fearful for my life,” the statement read.

“The accused wanted to hurt me.”

“I kept telling him I was at foremost looking out for his welfare.”

The officer’s statement said police were taught to be tough and deal with the type of incidents but were “human and feel the pain”, revealing she had experienced trouble sleeping since Gibson-Sullivan attacked her.

The court heard the father of a nine-year-old had spent most of his adult life serving jail sentences.

It was heard the Indigenous man suffered from an ABI, PTSD and had experienced a chaotic childhood.

Gibson-Sullivan’s lawyer pushed for his client to be granted a deferral of sentence so he could take up a place available to him at a drug rehabilitation centre from the following day.

It was heard Gibson-Sullivan would be banned from leaving the centre.

Police opposed the application, pointing out Gibson-Sullivan had not served the mandatory six months in jail required for assaulting a police officer.

Magistrate Helen Murphy said while that was the case, positions at the rehabilitation centre were rare, and agreed to defer sentence and bail Gibson-Sullivan to the program.

Ms Murphy warned Gibson-Sullivan he was in “a very precarious position”, having committed “an objectively serious offence”.