A man accused of assaulting police told Magistrate Michael Holmes that he was a changed man and asked for charges against him to be dropped.
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Instead Richard Fields, 36, who appeared in court this week, was committed to stand trial on charges of assaulting a police officer and behaving in an offensive manner in King Edward park between 4.40pm and 5.15pm on January 6.
That committal happened in the handful of seconds Magistrate Michael Holmes snatched after a lengthy "address" by the defendant to the Glen Innes Local Court on Wednesday, May 29.
"I'd like to address the court," Fields, who represented himself, began.
"Ever since the last court date it's made me look at life.
"This will be the last time you ever see me," he promised the court.
He said he'd been inspired to change his ways by among other things reading Psalm 23:4, which begins "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil".
Later he said he had written a four page explanation "of what is happening to me" but said he had left it at home. Instead he was "stating everything off the top of my head".
He also claimed police had smashed his phone and persecuted him, and brandished a number of printed emails that he'd been sent by various MPs including Adam Marshall and Greens MLC David Shoebridge among other organisations.
He asked that the Department of Public Prosecution reconsider charges.
The DPP was not at Wednesday's hearing. The charges have not been dropped, and he was committed to stand trial on Friday August 30.
Magistrate Holmes said he would set aside the whole day for Fields to "ventilate".
Fields responded by raising his voice to a bellow.
"I just want to be left alone," he yelled.
Fields has also been charged with resisting or hindering and intimidating a police officer in the execution of their duty in the same incident.