By Cam Lucadou-wells
A FORMER Canberra-based diplomat has held police at bay during a house siege in Endeavour Hills and was at another time found naked in his car with three samurai swords, a court heard.
Prior to the siege on 30 July, Ashfaq Hussain, 34, had started stabbing his bedroom door and walls with a knife, declaring “he’d lost the plot” to a concerned housemate.
Later that evening, he wielded a butcher’s knife and told his three housemates he’d “kill all of you” as they tried to flee out the front door.
The housemates barricaded themselves in a room, and two of them later fled out a rear door.
At 7pm, a critical-incident-response police cordon was formed outside. They were concerned that an armed Hussain and one of his housemates remained in the house, the court was told.
After a peaceful negotiation, Hussain was safely removed about 8.45pm.
At the time, Hussain was on bail for separate offences. He told police he was “insane” and lived a “delusional life”.
After a while, police thought Hussain became more coherent and so was putting on an act, the court was told.
On 18 December, Hussain was found naked in the driver’s seat of his car with samurai swords in his car’s open boot in Mont Albert.
He told police he couldn’t remember where or when he got the swords. He kept them “just to look at”.
His lawyer later told the court the swords were bought via Gumtree and that Hussain had a weapons licence in the ACT, though not Victoria.
The accused was also charged with threatening to harm an ex-girlfriend in March and with driving an unregistered car with a suspended ACT driver’s licence and without number plates in Noble Park in May.
Defence lawyer Emma Strugnell said the accused arrived in Australia as a young adult, and retired as a diplomat in Canberra onto a disability pension when diagnosed with mental health issues in 2015.
He then moved to Melbourne where he had little family support, Ms Strugnell said.
“There has not been 100 per cent compliance with his medication.
“He tells me that’s essentially the reason behind these incidents.”
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said it was hard to distinguish between the impact of Hussain’s bipolar disorder and drug use, including ice, cannabis and alcohol.
“You yourself draw the link between your drug use, your mental health and your offending.
“If you comply with your corrections order and the medication and keep away from any drugs, the chances of you having any contact with the courts are very low.”
Mr Vandersteen noted “tens of thousands of dollars” of police resources were used to arrest the accused at the siege, which could have ended much more seriously.
“You have had a lot go against you in the last couple of years, but I appreciate you’re still an intelligent person.”
Mr Vandersteen urged Hussain to comply with a community treatment order and a new 12-month treatment-based, supervisory community corrections order.
He said Hussain’s 16-day stint in remand custody was time served. The seized weapons were forfeited.
