Wollongong District Court judge Andrew Haesler has blasted a Barrack Heights criminal who tried to steal a gun from a prison officer in a daring escape bid while under guard in Wollongong Hospital.
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A Corrective Services officer was forced to fire two warning shots in broad daylight around the busy hospital precinct before Ian Charles Austin surrendered to police in the backyard of unit block on Staff Street on November 22, 2014.
Austin had been at the hospital receiving treatment after collapsing from a seizure in the cells below the courthouse the day before.
He had been returning from the toilet when he attacked the officer, punching him in the face and trying to wrestle his gun from its holster.
The officer push Austin away, prompting Austin to run to the nearby fire escape and make his way down three flights of stairs and onto Crown Street, dressed only in a hospital gown.
He immediately crossed the road and tried to hide in a nearby building, but quickly abandoned that idea and began running along Staff Street.
The officer chased Austin, yelling at him to stop. When Austin kept going, the officer fired a warning shot above his head.
However, Austin continued running, making his way into the driveway of a nearby set of unit blocks.
The officer, joined by a member of the public, pursued Austin before cornering him in a backyard.
Still ignoring orders to give himself up, Austin was preparing to jump a fence into another property when the officer fired a second warning shot above Austin’s head. He immediately surrendered.
In court on Monday, Judge Haesler praised the officer’s “restraint” during the ordeal.
“[The officer], having been hit to the head, forced to chase the offender and use his firearm, is to be commended for his restraint.
“There are other places in the world where Mr Austin would not have been here [today] if those events had occurred … perhaps [in] Florida or other states in America,” Judge Haesler said, in reference to recent fatal shootings in the US involving law enforcement officers.
A Corrective Services spokesman told the Mercury prison officers were authorised by law to “discharge a firearm or use force to stop the escape of an inmate when deemed necessary and reasonable”.
Judge Haesler sentenced Austin to eight months jail over the escape, on top of a 15 month sentence for an unrelated offence of entering a house with intent.
With time already served, Austin will be released on parole in October.