Civic bomb threat offender believed world was going to end

The 21-year-old, who is not being named because of his mental health issues, had three charges dismissed when he appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday afternoon.

It was exactly one year since the man, who was homeless at the time after being kicked out of his family home, created panic in Canberra's city centre.

Magistrate Louise Taylor said the defendant had "tailgated" a staff member into the ACT Legislative Assembly during a sitting week, saying he wanted to use a toilet.

When he was told to leave, he "began making comments about the Chinese coming" and said there was going to be a war.

The man went from there to the nearby Civic Library, where he approached the counter and said words to the effect of: "The Chinese are after me. The world is going to end, and do you believe in fate?"

He briefly went and sat down in a corner, leaving his jacket behind under a chair when he subsequently left the building.

The jacket was rolled up, which concerned staff members because they thought something might be wrapped inside it.

One of them went and found the man outside the library, but he ignored a request to collect his belongings and instead walked away towards London Circuit.

Not long after this, he went into the Canberra Museum and Gallery, where he pressed an alarm and caused an evacuation.

A gallery staffer exited the building and spotted the defendant standing near the fountain in Civic Square, "yelling out to everyone that there was a bomb".

Members of the public also reported seeing the man doing "a bird whistle" to get people's attention, then yelling loudly: "It's a bomb."

He eventually walked away after telling the gallery staff member the government was evil and that he had previously tried to burn down the Australian National University.

The man also said he had set off the alarm in the gallery "to help the old people".

An Australian Federal Police bomb response team had to attend the scene as a result of the man's actions, with 23 officers from across the force required to spend more than three hours there.

The jacket was ultimately deemed "non-suspicious", and the 21-year-old was arrested after he returned to the scene.

He was subsequently charged with making a false statement with intent to cause public alarm, causing public mischief, and minor theft.

The latter charge was laid over an incident from three days earlier, when the man "snatched" a woman's phone from her hand in Civic and ran away with it.

On Thursday, the man's Legal Aid lawyer, Tanja Cobden, applied for all three charges to be dismissed on mental health grounds.

MORE COURT AND CRIME NEWS:

Prosecutor Madison Fieldus did not oppose this in light of what forensic psychiatrist Richard Furst had written in a "comprehensive" report on the defendant.

As she granted the application for a dismissal, Ms Taylor said Dr Furst had diagnosed the man with schizoaffective disorder.

The magistrate said the 21-year-old had, as a result of this chronic and likely lifelong condition, experienced delusions and hallucinations that had caused him to behave in disturbed ways.

She said material before the court indicated he had once believed he was God.

Ms Taylor added that the man, who was now living with his family again, was currently under the care of mental health professionals in his home state of NSW.

She did not therefore think there was any reason to refer him to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal for potential mental health treatment orders to be made in the territory.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: