Hallucinating man calls police on himself
INJECTING what he thought was speed gave Robert William Maddern such a fright he called police on himself.
On Monday, the Proserpine Magistrate's Court heard Maddern had approached a security guard on May 14, saying he was seeing things and asked for police to be called.
Police prosecutor Michael Ball said officers arrived to find Maddern "talking in rapid-fire sentences" with injection marks down his arms.
Maddern said "people were disappearing and appearing in front of him".
The 36-year-old asked officers to help him find his wallet and keys in his hotel room where they discovered 0.15g of cannabis and 0.25ml of "cloudy liquid".
Magistrate Simon Young said the offence, which occurred just four days after Maddern was sentenced for similar charges in Mackay, showed "a complete disregard for the authority of the court".
Duty Lawyer Cleo Rewald said things might not have gone so smoothly if Maddern hadn't called police.
"No, he would be lying in a morgue somewhere," Magistrate Young replied.
The man was ordered to complete 50 hours of community service.
Maddern was also fined $150 for failing to present himself to police before May 22.
