Jeffery Michael Webb sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting police officers

A police officer said “she feared she was going to die” after an attempt to arrest a man went awry. His sentence.

Burnie Supreme and Magisterial Courts

A man who threw a lawnmower and a pitchfork at three police officers who tried to arrest him before stabbing one of them will not have a previously suspended sentence activated, but he will still have to spend time in prison.

Jeffery Michael Webb, who is 53, pleaded guilty to three charges of assaulting a police officer during an incident that took place on January 30, 2024, at Latrobe.

He also pleaded guilty to a number of summary charges involving cannabis possession and firearm offences.

During sentencing in the Supreme Court in Burnie, Chief Justice Alan Blow said that Webb had been diagnosed with schizophrenia around 30 years ago.

However, he had ceased taking medication to treat the condition in April 2022.

The court heard that on January 30, Webb’s mother called the police during an episode he was having.

Once the police arrived, he was in a shed in the backyard and refused to speak to officers, which prompted them to call for backup.

Justice Blow said a little while later, three officers approached Webb, to which he responded by brandishing a large knife a few metres from two of them.

“He then got a pitchfork from the side of the shed and threw it with force at those two officers,” he said.

“They had to move out of its way very quickly.”

The court heard Webb got a lawnmower from the shed and threw it at the same two police officers.

Justice Blow said he then lunged at the third officer with the knife and slashed her vest.

“She moved backwards, fell onto her back, and was trapped between the shed and the fence, unable to get away.

“Webb made stabbing motions with the knife towards her face and neck area. She kicked out at him as he tried to stab her three times.

“She feared she was going to die.”

One of the officers used pepper spray on Webb before tackling him to the ground and handcuffing him.

Chief Justice The Honourable Alan Blow AO. Ceremonial sitting for the 200 year anniversary of the Supreme Court of Tasmania. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Justice Blow said the day after the incident, police went back to the house and found a small amount of cannabis, a bong and a taser in his room.

The court heard that Webb had “a number of stressors in the period leading up to the events of January 30”, including the death of his father in 2018 and an incident in July 2021 where he was attacked at a hotel, which resulted in him needing surgery.

“It is clear that the moral culpability of his offending conduct is substantially reduced as a result of his schizophrenia, and that this case is therefore not an appropriate one for the imposition of a penalty calculated to deter others from similar conduct,” Justice Blow said.

Webb had previously been handed down a two-month sentence in the Burnie Magistrates Court for various drug possession offences involving cannabis, amphetamine, and methylamphetamine – including driving under the influences of those illicit substances – wholly suspended on the condition he does not commit any crimes punishable by imprisonment for 12 months.

Justice Blow said that when the assault on the police officers occurred, it had been 11 months and eight days after that sentence was imposed.

However, the suspended sentence was not activated.

For the events of January 30, 2024, Webb was sentenced to a year in prison, backdated to the day after the crimes were committed.