‘I saw him do it, lock him away’: Man hauled before court after ranting and raving to jury

An obnoxious rant that caused a mistrial has almost landed a Launceston man in jail, after a verbal onslaught to a jury that “the f…ing c… is guilty as anything”.

A generic picture of an angry man swearing (not Phillip Harris).

An obnoxious rant that caused a mistrial has almost landed a Launceston man in jail, after he shouted at a jury visiting a crime scene that “the f…ing c… is guilty as anything”.

Phillip Bradley Harris, 49, emerged from his home while the jury was viewing the scene during a 2019 trial, yelling out with force that “he’s guilty…he ran him over, the c...” and “he did it on purpose, he ran him over on purpose”.

Harris continued with his verbal onslaught by adding, “take me down to the courthouse, I witnessed everything”, “I saw him do it, lock him away” and “the f…ing c… is guilty as anything, he did it deliberately”.

The jury at the time was on a “view” – a practice that sometimes takes place during Supreme Court trials, in which the jury is taken to observe the scene of an alleged crime.

In this case, the jury was taken to Goldie Court, Ravenswood, after Bruce Thomas Boyer was accused of deliberately running over his foe, Jason Rushton.

Due to Harris’ ranting and raving, the jury had to be discharged.

In his newly-published comments on passing sentence, Supreme Court judge Tamara Jago said according to text messages exchanged with the partner of another witness, Harris “did not care” that he’d caused a mistrial.

A Launceston Supreme Court jury was discharged after a man tried to influence them during an obnoxious tirade, yelling at them that an accused person was “guilty as anything”.

She said she’d “grappled” over whether she should send him to jail or not, given such behaviour “has the potential to threaten the integrity of the criminal justice system”.

Justice Jago said Harris had apparently not seen Boyer running into Rushton, but claimed he had heard it and “seen a person thrown through the air”.

Harris was called to give evidence during the trial, but repeatedly did not show up – with lawyers for both sides ultimately giving up on him due to his “obvious lack of cooperation”.

After his tirade, Harris initially pleaded not guilty to one count of attempting to influence a juror, and indicated his intentions to stand trial – but ultimately changed his plea “immediately prior” to a jury being empanelled in his own case.

Justice Jago noted Harris had “many” prior convictions and “certainly” did “not present as a law-abiding individual”.

However, she noted he had recently been making progress in steps to stabilise his life.

Harris was convicted and sentenced to seven months’ jail, which was wholly suspended on condition he not commit another imprisonable offence in the coming two years.

Regarding the Boyer case, following negotiation, he ultimately did not stand trial and was jailed after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm by dangerous driving.

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