By Cam Lucadou-Wells
An ice-fueled driver has driven at four police officers and rammed an occupied police car six times in a home’s driveway in Kirkham Road, Dandenong.
Ryan Heath Walters then drove the Ford XR6 sedan through a Colorbond fence into a neighbour’s house and took off on foot about 1am on 19 April 2019, Victorian County Court judge Chris Ryan said.
When he was chased down, Walters bit a police officer’s restraining hand.
And Walters continued to bite as the officer struck him with an OC foam cannister which exploded and discharged on the officer.
Walters released his bite only after being kicked by another police officer and handcuffed.
The accused was taken to Dandenong Hospital with skull fractures.
A blood test revealed ‘ice’ in his system.
During the ramming, Walters’ Ford was repeatedly reversed into an unmarked police car that blocked the driveway.
Four police officers had to jump for cover either in unit doorways or between parked cars.
Another officer was sitting inside the police car that was rammed.
In sentencing on 4 September, Judge Ryan told Walters that at least four police officers feared for their life and were “profoundly affected by your outrageous conduct”.
The bitten officer had a four-week wait to confirm he hadn’t contracted an infectious disease.
“Your ice-fuelled offending was appalling,” Judge Ryan said..
“You exhibited a complete disregard for the safety of at least four members of the Victoria Police.”
Walters pleaded guilty to six counts of putting police officers at risk, damaging a police car, resisting arrest, recklessly causing injury, damaging property and possessing meth.
At the time he was driving disqualified.
The car had false number plates, with $4520 of suspected stolen cosmetics in the boot.
Though not violent, Walters was a “habitual offender”, Judge Ryan said.
Walters had been principally a “counterfeiter and a thief” with 242 guilty findings and convictions over 14 years.
The lowlights include 22 convictions for breaching bail, 17 for unlicensed driving, 10 for disqualified driving, three for failing to stop on direction, as well as drink-driving, careless driving and dangerous driving.
“A perusal of your criminal record would demonstrate that your risk of reoffending generally is very high indeed,” Judge Ryan said.
“I regard your prospects for rehabilitation as poor.”
Walters had a long history of ‘ice’ abuse that kept him awake. In the weeks leading up to the incident, he started using heroin to help him sleep.
A psychologist was unable to state if Walters’ offending was due to an anti-social personality disorder. The issue was clouded by his long-term ice use.
Walters was jailed for five years, with a minimum three-and-a-half-year non-parole period.
His term included 504 days already spent in pre-sentence detention.
He was disqualified from driving for three-and-a-half years.
