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A man who escaped from the dock in the Northern Territory Supreme Court and shoved a security guard has been sentenced over the escape and the armed robbery charges he was originally in court to face.
- Kyle Campion fled the NT Supreme Court when his sentencing over an armed robbery was adjourned
- He has pleaded guilty to assaulting a court security guard and "shoulder charging" the building's glass front doors
- Campion was sentenced to four years' prison with a two-year non-parole period
Kyle Campion, 21, today pleaded guilty to charges laid over the incident earlier this week, including aggravated assault and escaping custody as well as property damage.
The court heard Campion was arrested in December last year for an armed robbery and had remained in custody before being brought to court for sentencing on Tuesday morning.
When the matter was adjourned so the court could consider a potential suspended sentence, Campion "shoved" the security guard behind him "with force to the throat and chest", according to presiding Justice Sonia Brownhill.
He then jumped over the dock and grabbed a metal water jug as he ran out of the courtroom.
Court security closed the courthouse's automatic glass front doors before Campion "shoulder charged" and smashed the jug against them, causing them to shatter.
The court heard he then fled the courthouse through an emergency fire door.
He was found by police less than an hour later on nearby Smith St, holding a steel bar and a garden pick.
Justice Brownhill said a police officer pointed a taser at Campion and told him to drop the weapons before arresting him "without incident".
Campion's lawyer, Joe Burke, said his client had fled the dock because he found out that some family members had died and he had not had the chance to speak to his lawyer before his court appearance.
"He noted that he was just feeling frustrated out of fear that he would miss those funerals," Mr Burke said.
He said Campion, who has spent most of his life in Maningrida, had been diagnosed with a number of "cognitive disorders" over his life, but a report tendered in court outlining his most recent psychiatric evaluation found no indication of cognitive impairment.
Crown prosecutor, Steve Ledek, said Campion had previously been convicted of escaping custody on two separate occasions.
"His criminal history suggests that when he sees an opportunity to make a break for it … he will take that opportunity," he said.
Justice Brownhill sentenced Campion for the offending on Tuesday, as well as for the aggravated robbery of a man at the Casuarina bus exchange and for carrying a knife in the Casuarina car park in December 2021,
Campion had earlier pleaded guilty on both counts.
"What you did [in escaping custody] was brazen and caught on CCTV cameras," Justice Brownhill said.
"Such offending undermines the administration of justice, and the front doors of the Supreme Court are a symbol of the administration of justice in the Northern Territory."
Campion was sentenced to two years and five months' prison for the aggravated robbery and one year and seven months over his attempted escape.
He will be eligible for parole after serving two years.