David Rixon
Amy Dale,Chieg Copurt Reporter
The Daily Telegraph.
October 4,2013
THE man who shot Senior Constable David Rixon has become the first person jailed for the term of his natural life for murdering a police officer.
Michael Allan Jacobs has this afternoon been sentenced to life with no parole for murdering Sen-Constable, the crime described by Justice Richard Button as "a life irrevocably taken"
Jacobs is the first person to be convicted of murdering a police officer since the O'Farrell government introduced legislation in 2011 to ensure such an offence is punished by a sentence to life with no parole.
He said the murder of a police officer "is a direct assault on the system of parliamentary democracy and the rule of law."
"The offender informed the intention to kill him," Justice Button said.
"That intention may have been held utterly fleetingly and irrationally ... but it has been established to a criminal standard."
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione and NSW police minister Mike Gallacher joined more than 20 police officers in court for the landmark sentence.
Sen-Constable Rixon was shot once in the chest with a bullet fired from a .38 calibre revolver after approaching Jacobs' stopped Holden Statesman for a random breath test early on March 2 last year.
The policeman returned fire and hit Jacobs three times, leaving the man with "an out of control drug addiction" critically wounded, before he collapsed from his injuries.
"The offender almost died from his injuries," Justice Button said, adding that in his dying moments Sen-Constable Rixon had handcuffed Jacobs to arrest him.
The court heard Jacobs screamed "ah die, I'm sorry sir, sorry" just after the shooting and while "lying gravely wounded could be heard repeatedly saying 'I'm sorry.'"
But Justice Button said he couldn't be satisfied "that the offender is responsible for this murder."
Police arrived shortly after the shooting but Sen-Constable Rixon couldn't be revived, while Jacobs received lifesaving surgery and eventually recovered after spending more than a month in hospital.
The Crown claimed Rixon was high on ice at the time, making him more prone to aggression, shot the policeman to avoid being locked up and convicted for repeatedly driving unlicensed.
Justice Button said of Jacobs's motive to avoid "being briefly refused bail or at worst a sentence of a matter of months ... the offender saw fit to fire a handgun at a police officer."
He said Sen-Constable Rixon would have had "less than a second before the shot was fired."
