The man who planted an explosive device outside the home of a pro-Palestinian resident has been sentenced to 12 months in jail, despite the court being told about his extensive mental health challenges.
David Maurice Wise, 43, was sentenced at Sydney’s Downing Centre court on Tuesday where he was given a non-parole period of three months, and a two-year community corrections order.
Wise pleaded guilty after being charged with leaving or sending a substance/article to create false belief danger, stalking and intimidating, entering inclosed land without lawful excuse and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.
Wise was charged after planting a homemade explosive device outside a home in south Sydney in January. Bomb Squad officers had to be called to the home to assess and dismantle the device, with a bomb disposal robot used at the time.
The homemade device was made of a fuel canister with a semi-moist towel stuffed into it, with a disposable lighter and large bolts attached. It was found on a vehicle’s bonnet in Botany.
The car was parked in the driveway of a home where the Palestinian flag and a board with statements about the Gaza war had been displayed on the front fence.
A note taped to the side of the device read “Enough! Take down flag! One chance!!!!”
The court heard he also called the victims on 16 January from a phone booth. He was arrested on 7 March.
His defence outlined extensive mental health challenges, including referencing reports from a psychiatrist that described him as “depressive”.
In another report, Wise told a psychiatrist he had suicidal thoughts, has violent dreams and has talked about “smashing people” in the past.
The defence also claimed Wise told them he only had a “dream-like memory of planting the bomb”.
Magistrate Megan Greenwood said the offending was “serious” and that there were “real issues” of community safety to consider.
“In my view, the offending is serious and there are very real issues of protection of community here.”
Greenwood noted the defence’s argument that Wise had “persecutory delusions” associated with his Jewish heritage that were exacerbated by his mental health challenges.
“This offending arose because of persecutory delusions and beliefs you’ve had, you strongly identify with your culture and heritage and the terrible experiences of your family and others that suffered greatly during the holocaust,” she said in court.
Greenwood noted that the relationship between the two victims living at the home at the time has since broken down, and that the incident has had lasting impacts on both.
The magistrate said the board and the flag had triggered Wise, and they were “difficult” for him to deal with.
At the time, the man who lives in the house, Theo, whose last name is being withheld for safety reasons, told Guardian Australia he had felt “scared, intruded on, violated and angry:
“I don’t know what to think. I’ve had a lot of messages of support from people, which means a lot, but unfortunately this did happen.”
He said he had intended the board of messages to be a way to start a dialogue on Israel’s war on Gaza.
