'I'll f------ suicide by cop'

Machete-wielding man threatens to kill police during 90-min siege in Grafton

Grafton man has been jailed after threatening police during 1.5 hour stand-off

A GRAFTON man who threatened police with knives and a bow during a tense 90 minute stand-off has been sentenced this week.

Mason James Laurie, 30, had pleaded guilty in Grafton Local Court to four charges of intimidating a police officer in execution of duty without causing actual bodily harm and one charge of using an offensive weapon to prevent lawful detention.

According to police facts, at 3.44am on January 29 this year police were called to a property in Grafton to assist paramedics who had been threatened by a machete-wielding Laurie, who had threatened to self-harm.

When police arrived Laurie was in the rear yard of the property with two large dogs on a leash, and yelled at police to leave, threatening "I'll f------ suicide by cop" if police entered or approached him.

Laurie walked backwards and sat at the back of the home and picked up a large carving knife and held it up at police and screamed: "if any of you c---- come in here I'll f------ kill you".

Police attempted to negotiate with Laurie, who continued to be highly aggressive and threaten to stab them if they approached.

Laurie entered the property and went to the front door, separated from police by a screen door, and armed himself with a smaller knife and held it against his throat, threatening to self harm if police tried to arrest him.

Officers attempted to use capsicum spray on Laurie who screamed to police to "I'm not coming out of this house unless it's in a body bag" and that if they entered the house he would kill them.

Laurie walked past the front screen door in view of police for some time, armed with different weapons including knives and a compound bow, and threatened to shoot police with it if they entered the house or tried to arrest him.

Eventually Laurie told police that he wanted to write a letter, and sat down in full view of police and wrote for a short time before he put the pen and paper down, picked up two large carving knives and screamed "are you ready?". Laurie quickly walked towards the front door and towards police in what the facts described as "highly aggressive" and "extremely predatory".

Police drew their firearms and Tasers and told Laurie to drop the weapons before firing the Tasers, however they had no effect and Laurie ran back inside.

Laurie sat back in a chair and started to throw the knives into the floor with such force that they stuck into the floor and said "I can throw them you know" while in range of police.

Laurie continued to engage with police, making threats to police and running back and forth out the front door towards police. Six Taser shots were used by police during the siege, however none were effective and at one stage Laurie ripped the prongs from his chest and said "you can't hurt me, they don't work on me".

After 90 minutes of engaging with police and intensive negotiations Laurie surrendered himself to police without any further injury.

In Grafton Local Court this week, Laurie was also sentenced on a number of other charges, including destroy/damage property, drive while suspended, drive with illicit drug in system, larceny, cultivate prohibited plant, common assault and contravene AVO.

Magistrate Karen Stafford sentenced Laurie to an aggregate sentence of two years and six months, with a non-parole period of 15 months, and will be eligible for release on September 12 2019.

Originally published as 'I'll f------ suicide by cop'