FLORENCE Vorhauer will spend the next two months in jail awaiting sentence for deliberately slashing two police officers with a Stanley knife and throwing Molotov cocktails to avoid being arrested.
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After sitting through a drawn out four-week trial, it took the jury of seven men and four women less than 30 minutes to find Mrs Vorhauer guilty on three charges in the Tamworth District Court yesterday.
A distraught Mrs Vorhauer was escorted from the courtroom after begging Judge Blackmore not to put her in the police cells.
Judge Blackmore permitted Lisa Vorhauer to hug her 63-year-old mother, and in a poignant scene, the pair sobbed in a prolonged embrace under tight security.
Two female officers were called upon to help separate the pair and as Mrs Vorhauer was led away, Lisa announced: "My mother's going to die, they'll kill her, that's why they've got her in the cells."
Depending on a vacancy, Mrs Vorhauer will today be taken to the women's prison either at Grafton or Mullawa (Silverwater) in Sydney to await her sentence in the Sydney District Court on August 28.
She is facing a maximum penalty of 25 years for maliciously wounding with the intent to prevent lawful apprehension and 12 years for using an offensive weapon to prevent lawful apprehension.
Judge Blackmore advised Mrs Vorhauer that despite her previous attitude towards hiring a solicitor (she represented herself), she should seek legal advice about the sentencing procedure.
Mrs Vorhauer did not respond and showed no emotion as the three verdicts were read but covered
her face when sitting back down
in the dock.
When Judge Blackmore ordered she be remanded in custody, she broke down asking: "Don't I get to spend the weekend with my
daughter?"
He ordered a pre-sentence report and that Mrs Vorhauer undergo a psychiatric examination by the prison medical authority.
In his summary, Crown Prosecutor Lee Carr said "very little evidence" was in dispute in relation to the events that unfolded on that rainy day on July 14, 1999.
It was proved that Mrs Vorhauer rose early that morning to "prepare her house for battle" wiring firelighters to at least 12 bottles filled with kerosene, which police described as Molotov cocktails.
Mrs Vorhauer knew Tamworth City Council was going to enforce a Land and Environment Court order to remove hundreds of ducks and hens from her yard, comparing herself to Braveheart in employing military strategy.
The council asked for a police presence in case of a breach of the peace and an ambulance was also on standby.
Believing she had the right to refuse council entry, Mrs Vorhauer jabbed a crowbar through the fence when police tried to remove sheets of corrugated iron.
Told she was under arrest, Mrs Vorhauer responded with "I can do anything I like" before lighting two bottles and launching them over the fence at the gathered authorities.
Mrs Vorhauer contended she feared for her life and was trying to attract the fire brigade by setting a tree alight. She refused however to surrender, prompting three operation support group police wearing helmets and shields to break through the fence to arrest her.
Mrs Vorhauer claimed the last thing she remembered was hearing Lisa screaming and being hit by a police officer. But what followed was a struggle between Senior Constable Stuart Crawford over the crowbar which was only knocked from her grip when OSG officer Sergeant Colin MacDonald put his shield on her chest.
Sergeant MacDonald may have made a mistake of assuming Mrs Vorhauer was "the old woman" she asserted to be.
Mrs Vorhauer reached for a Stanley knife attached to her apron, and slashed Sergeant MacDonald across the left forearm, severing a tendon and a radial nerve.