An escaped psychiatric patient held a man hostage with a spear gun and choked him with a chain during a siege in Western Australia's southwest, a court has heard.
David Charles Batty, 53, allegedly kept laundromat owner Peter Williams captive over 12 hours in a Bunbury park last week while heavily armed police tried to negotiate with him.
Mr Williams was threatened with a spear gun and choked with a chain during the overnight incident, which gave him hypothermia.
The tense stand-off ended at dawn with Batty being shot twice with beanbag rounds.
He was uninjured by the rounds and was laughing and talking to police who wrapped him in blankets to keep him warm.
The same non-lethal ammunition was used on Batty in July 2012, when he held his then 79-year-old father hostage in a car and threatened police with a gas bottle and a lighter in Perth's Kings Park.
He was due to be sentenced over the siege last June, but fled psychiatric hospital Graylands where he was being held.
Batty on Thursday appeared via video link in the District Court of WA on charges relating to the 2012 siege.
He is likely to remain at Graylands's maximum-security Frankland Centre as an involuntary patient until his next appearance in August.
Judge Philip Eaton said there were significant questions to be asked and answered about Batty's mental health.
Share
