A one-legged man accused of robbing Unanderra’s Peacock Palace Chinese restaurant has damaged a courthouse camera during an angry tirade aimed at winning back his freedom.
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Michael Scott Rowe ranted until Wollongong courthouse staff could take it no more, cutting audio to the cell from which the Unanderra 39-year-old was making a bail application on Tuesday.
No one was watching as Rowe then grew increasingly agitated, at one point pulling off his prosthetic leg and waving it at the camera in angry emphasis.
He then re-attached the limb and punched the camera, dislodging it so it could not be used for subsequent bail applications.
Police allege Rowe broke into the Peacock Palace, on Central Road, shortly before 7am on Sunday. CCTV allegedly showed him lifting sums of cash from the til and from a nearby cupboard. He also allegedly collected $20 from the tip jar and a picked up a white, glass statue of a horse before leaving. Police say he walked with a distinctive gait towards a bicycle, then rode away.
In court on Tuesday, Legal Aid solicitor Laura Fennell said her client had lost his leg and suffered other life-changing injuries in a serious car accident in 2012.
He suffered the ongoing effects of a head injury and nerve pain at the site of the missing limb and required multiple medications – all factors which would make it difficult to house him in prison, Ms Fennell argued.
“His injuries would make him a very vulnerable prisoner,” she said. “He would not be able to remain in the main prison population. His leg and ongoing symptoms would make him a very difficult prisoner to house for Corrective Services.”
But the court heard Rowe was already on a good behavior bond for dishonesty offences when he was charged over the break-in.
Rowe grew angry when bail was refused. He entered a plea of not guilty at a subsequent court appearance on Wednesday, where bail was again formally refused. His matter returns to court June 6.