Wandina hatchet attack: Former police officer allegedly assaulted with axe speaks out

A former police officer who was seriously wounded after an attempted burglary on his home has hit out at the judicial system, claiming sentencing should be tougher on those who repeatedly flout the law. Adrian Barker was eating a meal and watching a YouTube video in his kitchen about 3am after returning home from work on Sunday, when he heard someone tampering with the door latch from outside. He said he had been keeping an eye on the house after claiming he noticed a suspicious group of people wandering the streets of Wandina on his drive home. “I get up, pull door open, and boom, there’s four (teenagers) sprinting away,” Mr Barker said. Mr Barker said he headed out of the Bellimos Drive house towards their direction, when he was confronted by at least seven teenagers near Seaview Crescent. It was about that time a nearby resident contacted police. After a verbal argument, Mr Barker was allegedly assaulted by a teenager wielding a hatchet. Another juvenile was armed with a hammer, he said. Mr Barker sustained internal bleeding, a broken hand, bruising near his lung and lacerations that needed stitches on his head. The 54-year-old denied claims aired in court by the teen’s defence lawyer that he held one of the teenagers in a headlock, but did confirm he tackled one of the children and threw punches. “It was absolutely pandemonium. Boots, boot marks, axe wounds, I got two hammer strikes on the back of the head here, kicks all the way along from the kidney all the way up to just below the shoulder blades there,” he said. Mr Barker said he knew it was important not to lose consciousness during the alleged attack. Mr Barker was a Geraldton police officer for 15 years until 2021. He said although he had been in similar situations on the job, the attack was unlike anything he had encountered during his policing career, because this time he was by himself against alleged attackers. He confirmed there were some teenagers in the group he had dealt with while working as a police officer. “I removed myself from that job 15 years ago and I’m done with it. I thought, ‘I’ve had enough, I’m going to drive trucks and not interact with anybody for the whole 12 hours’. Only to then come home and have this happen — you cannot escape,” he said. Mr Barker has not been able to return to work as a truck driver because his right hand is in a cast, which he was desperate to have removed as soon as possible, he said. “The injuries stopped me from working, stopped me from sleeping. My back has been sore,” he said. He said the judicial system was too lenient on juvenile offenders and wanted to see the full penalty applied to deter criminals from reoffending. “The penalties are there, they need to be administered as they were written down. What criteria are the courts using that has reduced these penalties from what they were to what they’re currently being issued,” he said. Mr Barker’s wife, Catriona, thanked police and hospital staff for their quick attendance. She said her husband’s injuries were quickly tended to. “Police have been very supportive, the hospital’s great, both our workplaces have been very supportive with leave and whatnot, and obviously, support with family and friends has been really good,” Mrs Barker said. Asleep during the incident, she said she was shocked to find her husband’s head covered in blood when she woke. “Having been married to him for 15 years in the police force, he’s come home looking like that anyway,” she said. “If I hadn’t been exposed to that, I probably would have been a lot more shocked and a lot more upset. But I have great confidence in him looking after himself.” Geraldton police acting officer-in-charge Sen. Sgt Paul Johnson told 7 Regional News: “We do have a high volume of burglaries but rarely does it come to a point where an occupant of an address is assaulted. “We understand these kind of things are frustrating, but you never know when it’s going to go from bad to worse.” Two teenagers, aged 17 and 14, were charged earlier this week over the incident and faced court. Two men, aged 18 and 21, appeared in Geraldton Magistrates Court on Friday charged over the alleged attack.