A Mangerton man has used a metre-long Samurai sword to sort out a dispute with his downstairs neighbour Paul, after mistaking him for an unsavoury character called Tony.
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Peter Mark Hoffman’s neighbours were trying to sleep about 9pm on July 30, but his loud music – blaring from his first-floor Myuna Way unit since midday – kept them awake.
Paul’s partner phoned police before he and Hoffman had a conversation from their balconies.
Looking down, Hoffman, 38, appeared confused and substance-affected.
He addressed Paul as “Tony” and told him “f--k you c--t, I’m not scared of you, I’ll f--king go ya”.
Paul looked through the peep hole of his front door moments later and saw Hoffman standing about three metres away, brandishing the sword like a baseball bat and urging him to come out.
Paul opened the door and ordered Hoffman to “put the sword down you weak coward”.
But he retreated inside when Hoffman took three or four running steps towards him and, still wielding the sword – a katana – threatened to stab him in the heart.
Police arrived at the housing block later in the night and found Hoffman inside his apartment.
He opened the door still holding the imposing blade, but upon seeing police tossed it onto a nearby lounge.
Police noticed Hoffman behaving erratically throughout the arrest process.
He spoke to himself for long periods, in one conversation lamenting that he had not blocked his neighbour’s peep hole to allow for a more stealthy attack.
Hoffman appeared before Wollongong Local Court on Friday, having pleaded guilty to a charge of arming himself with intent to commit an indictable offence.
Sentencing magistrate Michael Stoddart told a contrite Hoffman his Samurai days were over.
“You’re lucky you’re not on some more serious charge or that the victim wasn’t injured,” he said.
“Have you still got all those swords? They can all be surrendered. You’re not getting those back.”
Police seized two katanas from Hoffman’s apartment but at least one other large sword remained at the property, the court heard.
The magistrate refused a request from Hoffman’s lawyer to deal with the matter with a good behavior bond.
The court heard Hoffman was in the grip of drug addiction, having recently fallen just short of completing a nine-week recovery program.
The magistrate handed him a 12-month suspended prison sentence.
He is due at the Watershed Drug and Alcohol Recovery and Education Centre on Monday.