John Saether to be sentenced next month after dramatic pharmacy holdup arrest

A young man will be sentenced next month after a dramatic pharmacy holdup arrest at Rosetta last year, with police facing criticism and an investigation into their response. LATEST >>

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NO DISCIPLINARY action will be taken against police who knocked a knife-wielding Hobart man to the ground with a car before punching him to the head.

John Saether, 21, appeared in the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Monday after pleading guilty to a range of assault and robbery charges in the wake of last April’s dramatic arrest.

Saether’s run-in with a group of armed officers occurred after he attempted to hold up the Montrose-Rosetta Guardian Pharmacy demanding drugs – with a civilian video on the incident going viral on social media and broadcast nationally.

Images from Facebook of a man wielding a knife being arrested by Tasmania Police in Montrose.

The video shows Saether being knocked to the ground by an unmarked car before armed police launched upon him and dealt him several blows to the head and neck.

Crown prosecutor Rebecca Lancaster said Saether approached the pharmacy owner on the morning of April 15 last year, silently handing over a note that read: “I want everything on this list. I have a knife and I’m not messing around”.

After the owner hit the duress button, Saether went to leave but withdrew his knife when he saw police.

Ms Lancaster said police deployed capsicum spray twice during the incident while Saether held out the knife, but wasn’t subdued on either occasion.

“Despite being told to drop the knife, the accused continued to hold the knife towards police, telling them to shoot him,” she said.

“He wanted to scare one of them enough to pull the trigger.”

She said police didn’t have batons or shields to defend themselves, so “used the Subaru in a very unorthodox way, to subdue the accused”.

She said police struck him twice with the car, the first time sending him a metre through the air but that he sat straight back up, still holding the knife.

She said the second blow caused him to fall to the ground.

It was noted the police used the Subaru in an “unorthodox” way, and also continued punching Saether despite him submitting to arrest.

“They just didn’t know how it was going to end and that created quite a lot of anxiety,” she said.

“The officers have faced criticism and investigation into their actions.”

Defence lawyer Rochelle Mainwaring confirmed an inquiry had been launched “into the appropriateness of the police response by Professional Standards” and a result, no action had been taken.

She conceded it “was a very stressful situation” but noted when Saether was punched to the head, he was not resisting police and officers were not having difficulty getting him in handcuffs.

Ms Mainwaring said Saether had a long history of mental health problems, had been unsuccessfully seeking help for his drug issues at the time, and that he “he never, ever intended to use the knife against anyone”.

“He wants to apologise, in particular to the police officers involved … he didn’t intend to target them out of any malice towards them,” she said.

Justice Stephen Estcourt commended the police response and will watch the civilian footage of the incident as well as body-worn camera footage from two of the officers involved.

He will sentence Saether on April 19.

Follow @ambervwilson