A Riverina man who claimed he had knuckledusters and a baton hidden in his carry-on luggage at Sydney airport to break open a coconut has been thrown behind bars.
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Deon Troy Eade pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon in Wagga Local Court this week.
Eade was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of four months.
The 41-year-old launched an immediate appeal against the severity of the sentence, to be heard in Wagga District Court on December 12.
Documents tendered to the court state Eade was caught at the domestic terminal at Sydney Airport at around 4.15pm on October 3, where the weapons were found concealed in his carry-on.
The Griffith man immediately admitted to staff that he owned the bag.
Things took a bizarre twist when Eade then told staff the baton was actually a torch.
After police were called to the airport, Eade revealed in an interview that he had purchased the weapons from a tobacconist store on George Street but could not reveal the name of the store or how much the weapons cost.
As the interview continued, despite claiming he had never used the weapons before, Eade said the baton was to get coconuts out of trees and the knuckledusters were to crack them open.
In a final twist, Eade told police he had packed the bag the night before with no intentions of travelling on a plane the following day.
He also stated he was not aware it was an offence to possess either of the weapons at an airport.
The offences were in breach of an existing good behaviour bond for common assault, contravene an apprehended violence order and stalking/intimidation.
Magistrate Erin Kennedy told Eade she had no other choice but to put him behind bars.
“On the basis that you’ve lived in the community and weren’t able to serve those bonds, you really need to obey the law,” she said.
“This is an extremely serious set of facts.”
Ms Kennedy said she did not believe Eade’s explanations.
“You said you couldn’t recall where the items were from and then they were for breaking coconuts – I just don’t accept what you’re saying," Ms Kennedy said.
“You were on two suspended sentence bonds and these are two serious offences which each carry a 14-year prison sentence.”