By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A man fled in handcuffs from inside a divisional police van after headbutting and kicking a police officer, a court has heard.
Brody Randy Hopkins was sentenced to 18 months in juvenile detention after pleading guilty to a string of drug, vehicle theft and aggravated burglary charges while on youth parole in Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 30 January.
He appeared by video link from Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre.
The court heard police found Hopkins and a female passenger asleep in the front of a stolen $18,000 ute in Noble Park on 20 November.
When arrested and led into the back of a divvy van, Hopkins headbutted an officer’s forehead and bruised the officer’s upper thigh in an attempt to knee him in the groin.
Wearing handcuffs behind his back, Hopkins jumped over a resident’s back fence and escaped.
He ran for about 45 minutes before having the handcuffs ground off his arms at a friend’s house.
Police told the court that Hopkins later claimed he couldn’t remember assaulting the officer because he was in such a drug-affected state at the time.
He admitted to smoking ice and about a gram of cannabis a day since his recent release from youth detention, the court was told.
Police seized a zip-lock bag of cannabis, about $20 cash, stolen ID cards from five different victims and suspected stolen power tools as well as a crowbar, torch and balaclava from the ute.
On 1 December Hopkins was arrested after again fleeing from police who found him in a stolen Nissan coupe at a relative’s house in Narre Warren.
Hopkins told police he’d used ice three hours earlier.
He had driven the Nissan coupe – while he was disqualified – during two petrol drive-offs the day before.
Police seized items such as garden gloves, a torch and a balaclava from the car.
After his last release from youth detention, he also committed an aggravated home burglary in Noble Park, driven a sports car stolen from Noble Park and ram-raided a Keysborough bottle shop drive-through, stealing a cash register filled with $2290 as well as more than $350 of alcohol.
A defence lawyer told the court that the unemployed Hopkins was motivated by selling items to support his drug habit.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen was concerned that Hopkins – a “frequent flier” in court – was becoming institutionalised, seeming to function better at Malmsbury than in society.
His long history of using drugs, stealing cars and handling stolen property, and his inability to comply with parole and court orders was escalating in seriousness, Mr Vandersteen said.
“You had been doing well for one month on parole. You then miss an appointment and throw in the towel.
“If you’re going to take drugs, become violent towards police and put others in the community at risk, we have to detain you.
Hopkins’ detention immediately follows his current Malmsbury stint’s expiration in April.
He was expected to be eligible for parole by January 2018.
Hopkins was disqualified from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay a total of $3014 compensation including to the bottle shop and $349 for the stolen handcuffs.
