Phillip Lewis Marks: Geraldton man jailed for eight months for swinging at police officer with covered axe

A Geraldton man jailed for swinging a covered axe at a police officer before he was pepper-sprayed and arrested has been told by a District Court judge he was “lucky he didn’t get shot”. Phillip Lewis Marks was sentenced to eight months in prison on Wednesday in the Geraldton District Court after pleading guilty to intending to intimidate a police officer. Marks swung at an officer with an axe on March 16, 2020 in a shed at his home in Beresford. Police officers were attempting to arrest him as he was suspected of running a red light five days before. Marks was initially charged with intending to harm the officer, but body-cam footage from the officer showed the axe had a black guard covering it, leading to the charge being reduced to intending to intimidate, which Marks pleaded guilty to. Judge Troy Sweeney said the the axe could still have caused serious damage if it had hit an officer even though it had a guard, had the officer not backed away. “It was extremely dangerous because you could not predict how they were going to act,” Judge Sweeney said. The altercation with Marks only ended when police used pepper spray, but the judge said Marks was “lucky he didn’t get shot”. There had been some confusion as the footage from another officer seemed to show the axe was not covered by a guard, but the judge and prosecution accepted this inconsistency was probably because of lighting and the rapid movement of the axe in the footage. Marks claimed he did not know the men were police officers when he swung, a claim Judge Sweeney rejected, given the police were uniformed and told Marks he was under arrest, as well as the fact Marks called the officers “pigs” during the altercation. Judge Sweeney acknowledged Marks had a low level of intellectual functioning, difficulty hearing, and is possibly autistic, which could have affected his decision-making. She also took into account Marks did not have a criminal record at the time of the offence. These factors, however, could not fully mitigate the seriousness of the offence according to the judge, and she rejected a defence request for a suspended sentence. “The law has to protect police officers,” she said. “I need to send a message to others in the community that you can’t treat police like this.” Marks will be eligible for parole after serving four months. He is also facing charges for the running a red light, which he was originally arrested for, and for an altercation with a neighbour.