Timothy Elijah Thorne: Gnowangerup man jailed for ‘terrifying’ and ‘completely random’ machete attack

A Gnowangerup man has been jailed for a night of terror where he wielded a 40cm machete and a baseball bat, leaving his victim with a blood nose and damaging the State Emergency Services building. Timothy Elijah Thorne was sentenced in Albany Magistrates Court on Thursday for assault occasioning bodily harm, being armed, criminal damage, and disorderly behaviour, having pleaded guilty on October 3. The 25-year-old swung a 40cm machete at the Gnowangerup SES building, flagpole, and power box, and threw garden rocks at the entrance, smashing three glass panels and denting a door frame on September 12. That same night, Thorne charged at a Landcruiser and hit the vehicle’s panelling with a metal baseball bat, breaking the windows and trying to strike the victim with the bat through a shattered window. Thorne punched the victim in the face and gave him a blood nose. The victim took the bat off Thorne and drove away as Thorne charged at the car wielding a 40cm machete. Thorne was placed on a five-month intensive supervision order in June for similar offending where he pulled a large axe from a suitcase and swung it around before concealing it in his pants on Lower King Road in Bayonet Head on January 17. Defence lawyer Georgia Herford said her client had suffered disruption at the time of offending after finding out his father had been incarcerated. Ms Herford said her client suffers from alcohol misuse and his time in prison had made him realise how “desperately” he needs to fix his life. She asked for a fine, for any term of imprisonment to be conditionally suspended, and that it be backdated to his arrest on September 13. Police prosecutor Sgt Warrick Walker said only immediate imprisonment was appropriate for Thorne who attacked a “completely random” member of the public. Magistrate Erin O’Donnell said Thorne showed a degree of unplanned “persistence” and said the events of the night would have been “terrifying”. “People ought to be able to go about their business in the community without being attacked,” she said. “You kept going even after the bat was taken.” The court jailed Thorne for one year and eight months, backdated to September 13 and with eligibility for parole.