Alleged thief Karl Arnold reprimanded for ‘rude and disrespectful remarks’

An alleged thief has been reprimanded by a Supreme Court Justice for calling a Crown prosecutor a “piece of s– t” from the dock before court proceedings commenced.

An alleged thief has been reprimanded by a Supreme Court Justice.

AN ALLEGED thief has been reprimanded by a Supreme Court Justice for calling a Crown prosecutor a “piece of s– t” from the dock before court proceedings commenced on Thursday.

Karl Arnold represented himself in the Darwin Supreme Court on Thursday for a bail review after being charged with stealing and assaulting a worker in March.

After making the remarks to Crown prosecutor David Castor, Justice Judith Kelly told the court she had been informed that Arnold “made rude and disrespectful remarks to the learnered prosecutor.”

Arnold explained he had an “ongoing feud” with Mr Castor before Justice Kelly declined his request to sit at the bar table.

Justice Kelly told the court Arnold had previously stated he had an excellent record of compliance with bail conditions, which was disputed by records tendered in court.

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“Contrary to your statement that you were doing excellently well, this does not seem to be the case.”

She went on to detail a number of incidents where Arnold breached his bail conditions including; testing positive for substances including cannabis, amphetamine and opiates during random drug testing, refusing to provide a sample for testing and not charging his electronic monitoring device.

The court heard there was also a time when Arnold “responded in an aggressive manner (to corrections officers conducting a curfew check), saying (he was) going back to sleep.”

“This is a list of noncompliance that dates back to close to the beginning,” Justice Kelly said.

“On the other hand, there is also a list of compliance,” Arnold responded.

He argued that corrections officers were doing checks at “unreasonable hours.”

“Although at times I’m not the most palatable person, I do have my personal issues,” Arnold said.

In deciding not to grant Arnold bail, despite his mother putting up a $3000 surety, Justice Kelly said there was too much of a risk of him reoffending.

“The offence of assaulting a worker and stealing was committed within three weeks of his (Arnold’s) release from prison in Western Australia,” she said. “The main ground for opposing bail … is Mr Arnold is likely to commit another offence or breach his bail.

“It is noteworthy … Mr Arnold was on bail when this alleged offence occurred.”