Arron James McIntyre pleads guilty in Roma Magistrates Court to assaulting a police officer

A Roma man told a police officer that he would hurt him moments before following through on his threat with a swing of his fist. Here’s how the incident unfolded.

A Roma man with a violent history has narrowly avoided jail after he assaulted a police officer.

Two Longreach police officers attended a residence after reports of a dispute on August 6, when they were confronted by an aggressive and intoxicated Arron James Mcintyre, Roma Magistrates Court was told.

According to the agreed facts read onto the record, Mcintyre approached the two officers with “his chest out” after they tried to approach another person involved in the incident that prompted the police presence.

Police told Mcintyre to “get out of (their) face” and lightly pushed him away; however, when one of the officers asked Mcintyre to walk with them out of the house, Mcintyre warned “I will hurt you”.

When both officers grabbed him, the defendant swung his left arm and punched one of the officers in the chin.

The court was told Mcintyre was detained and sent to the Longreach watch house, where it was noted that he “was highly intoxicated and still smelled strongly of liquor”.

This was not the first time Mcintyre had faced court for these types of violent charges, with the court told that Mcintyre had an extensive history of “serious assaults and a myriad of other violent offences” and had previously been jailed for similar offending.

In court on Wednesday November 30 Mcintyre pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer.

Defence lawyer Laurie Parker said Mcintyre needed to get “his alcohol (consumption) under control” and said that was why he was upset that night.

“He was very apologetic to both police officers,” Mr Parker said.

“When put in the paddy wagon, he was upset with himself and said he wanted to go home.”

Magistrate Shane Elliott said Mcintyre was lucky he wasn’t charged with a more serious offence.

“With your conduct, you should have been charged with serious assault occasioning bodily harm while adversely affected, which is a maximum 14 years imprisonment,” Mr Elliott said.

“You have previous entries for offences of violence and previous entries for serious assault of a police officer.

“You were immediately aggressive towards police… you told police that you would hurt them.

“They were attempting to arrest you and you hit one of them in the chin with a fist, which is a concerning and serious criminal act.”

Mcintyre was sentenced to nine months imprisonment wholly suspended for two years.

Originally published as Arron James McIntyre pleads guilty in Roma Magistrates Court to assaulting a police officer