“We love you, mate”, a family member shouted, breaking the silence of the Mandurah courtroom on Friday, after Matthew John Aris handed himself over to security guards to serve seven-months in prison.
The father-of-three who represented himself, pleaded guilty to seven charges that included possessing two loaded guns, wooden knuckle dusters and a stolen Harley Davidson frame and engine that had been reported missing in a 2016 burglary.
Prosecuting officer Sean Discombe told the court police found a prohibited loaded firearm with a magazine attached, a handgun and five rounds of ammunition when they searched Aris’s Coodanup home, at 9am on March 13, 2018.
They also found a tazer and a smoking implement that contained methamphetamines.
Magistrate Anne Longden was hesitant to sentence Aris on Friday and gave him a number of chances to seek legal advice, but he requested the matter be dealt with, which required him to be re-sentenced for an assault in July last year due to breaching his community order.
Aris refused to comment why he was in possession of the stolen motorbike, the guns and the ammunition and denied having a problem with drugs.
Ms Longden asked how his life had unraveled so much in the past year, but Aris refused to discuss the reason.
“I’ve got nothing else to say,” he said.
Officer Discombe said the only appropriate sentence was an “immediate term of imprisonment”, for the serious charges.
When passing sentence, Ms Longden said she may have focused too much on prospects of rehabilitation when she sentenced Aris last year.
Aris was sentenced to seven months in prison and was made eligible for parole.
Carla Hildebrandt
Journalist at the Mandurah Mail
Journalist at the Mandurah Mail
