Man beat 58-year-old because he thought he was a drug dealer, court hears

‘THAT’S right, call the police, I tried to f***ing kill him, I tried to choke him three times but he wouldn’t die.’

Jacob Maitland-Foon, 38, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to intentionally causing serious harm

A MAN who attacked a 58-year-old as he lay in bed because he thought he was a drug dealer after smoking cannabis “spiked with methamphetamine” has narrowly avoided an attempted murder trial.

Jacob Maitland-Foon, 38, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to intentionally causing serious harm on the day he was due to face trial this week for allegedly trying to kill the older man.

Crown prosecutor Stephen Geary said the victim was in bed at home in Malak in November 2018 when Maitland-Foon choked him and struck him repeatedly to the face and head, with the final blow leaving him unconscious.

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Mr Geary said a neighbour heard the commotion and came out to investigate before hearing “gurgling sounds” from the other man’s flat and returning home to call the police.

“As he got inside his unit and grabbed his phone, the offender suddenly appeared at his doorway — the offender was covered in blood and in a highly agitated state,” he said.

“The offender was wearing white-coloured gloves on his hands that had blood on them.”

Mr Geary said Maitland-Foon was pacing back and forth as the neighbour tried to calm him down and said “that’s right, call the police, I tried to f***ing kill him, I tried to choke him three times but he wouldn’t die”.

As a result of the beating, the victim was rushed to Royal Darwin Hospital and placed in an induced coma and Mr Geary said the injuries “had a complete, dramatic impact on his life”.

“Really his life will never be the same and certainly he’ll never work again,” he said.

“He’ll never drive a car, he’s lost his house he was in and he’s fully now on the NDIS so it’s had an absolutely traumatic effect on his life.”

In reply, defence barrister Mark Thomas said Maitland-Foon truly believed the man was a drug dealer and there was “nothing sinister” about the gloves he was wearing, which were to protect against the “stickiness” of his bicycle handles.

Mr Thomas said his client had visited RDH repeatedly in the lead up to the assault after having panic attacks “since smoking THC that he believes was spiked with methamphetamine”.

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“He wasn’t in what might be described as a completely normal state of mind,” he said.

“(He says) he wanted to harm those people who sold him the drug-laced marijuana that caused what he describes as drug induced psychosis.”

Maitland-Foon will return to court for sentencing on Friday.

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