A TAMWORTH publican has been found guilty of sending "menacing" emails and threatening a police prosecutor after a court hearing where dozens of "rambling" emails were tendered as evidence.
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Magistrate Greg Grogin found Michael Ian Foxman, 51, guilty of the offences during a special hearing in Tamworth Local Court on Thursday.
Mr Grogin said the content of one email sent to a police prosecutor and the court in September last year was a "threat", and said there was "no doubt" the person it was directed at found it "disturbing".
The court heard Foxman sent more than 30 emails over a five-month period to the prosecutor - including 22 in one day - and also CC'd various government departments, the Tamworth court, politicians, the US embassy in Canberra, the prime minister and organisations like ICAC in a number of the emails.
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He had pleaded not guilty to charges of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend; and threaten a person with intent to influence a public justice official.
But Mr Grogin found both offfences had been proven by the Crown.
Foxman appeared via video link from Sydney, where he is bailed to live, but did not give evidence during the hearing.
No witnesses were called, and the magistrate relied on a "voluminous" brief detailing the contents of the emails; statements from court staff and the police prosecutor; and the transcript of Foxman's interaction with police during his arrest last year.
The court heard Foxman had sent "lengthy" emails dating from June to September last year, containing content Mr Grogin ultimately found to be harassing and menacing.
"I would find that the conduct of Mr Foxman over that period of time by using a carriage service in the manner that he did harassing and menacing," he told the court.
He said an email sent by Foxman to the police prosecutor on September 28 last year contained threats of being sued.
"There was cause, there was an intention, there was a desire," Mr Grogin said.
The court heard the email sent by Foxman on the day caused the Tamworth courthouse to be evacuated for half-an-hour.
The court heard Foxman wrote in the email that the courthouse was going to be "all that is going to be left by the time I'm finished with you", as well as the words "3pm is your d-day" and that there would be "severe repercussions" if action wasn't taken by that time.
There was no dispute over whether Foxman sent the emails.
Foxman was arrested at his Bondi Junction apartment last year and the 15-minute video filmed by a police officer's body camera was played in court.
When asked if he had contacted the court on the day of his arrest, Foxman could be heard responding: "I'm sending them shit emails, I am just going to keep inundating them until they give up."
He said in the video Tamworth police were "selling drugs" at the Imperial Hotel and decided to "put on a sex show" at the venue, and also claimed that he was "not a nut job".
Foxman's defence barrister Jonathan Cohen said the dozens of emails contained "outlandish" claims and in that context they couldn't be taken seriously.
"The intention is this man seriously believes there is ... a conspiracy against him," Mr Cohen said, and that Foxman believed the way his matters were being handled was "affecting the relationship between Australia and China".
He also told the court his client had never been asked to stop sending emails, and that Foxman's correspondence was being filed at the court.
Mr Cohen said Foxman should be found not guilty of the second charge of intending to influence a public justice official - namely the police prosecutor in charge of other matters against Foxman - because there "was no influence on the outcome".
Mr Grogin reminded the barrister the police prosecutor had removed himself from the case and that the threats were taken seriously when the courthouse was evacuated.
The magistrate found both of the charges had been proven..
The matters were adjourned to a Sydney court next month, where Foxman's lawyers said they will make applications based on medical evidence before he can be sentenced.
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