The group had gathered in support of Eric Robert Lord, of Rutherglen, who was facing Shepparton Magistrates’ Court on charges including assaulting an emergency worker on duty and resisting arrest.
The majority of the matter had previously been heard in Wodonga Magistrates’ Court.
Members of the group outside, who did not provide their names, said they had come from throughout Australia and were protesting about what they perceived to be an injustice by police.
They were loathe to be called sovereign citizens, saying there was “no such thing as a sovereign citizen”, but they did say that they thought the ‘no trespassing’ signs on Lord’s property meant police should not have been there. The group was not permitted to enter the court room or court house.
The court heard a Chiltern police officer had entered Lord’s Rutherglen property past a ‘no trespassing’ sign — which he didn’t see — while attempting to intercept a car in an unrelated matter on November 15, 2023.
The court heard the officer, who was not familiar with the Rutherglen area, believed it was a commercial property because there was no front fence, gate or chain across the driveway.
He was then confronted by Lord’s wife, who told him to leave because he was trespassing.
The court heard he told her he would.
After reversing then driving forward, doing a three-point turn to leave the property, the court heard the police officer heard a thump after he’d seen the woman trying to grab the police vehicle.
The court heard Lord’s wife had “serious injuries”, including a fractured pelvis, a broken rib and bruising.
After hearing his wife yell out for help, the court heard Lord grabbed the officer by his vest, removed him from the vehicle and removed his taser.
The court heard Lord was a CFA member with training in vehicle response, and his instinct was that he wanted the vehicle to stay so the scene could be investigated.
Two other officers arrived at the scene to see their colleague on the ground with someone standing over him.
Magistrate Megan Casey found Lord guilty of assaulting an emergency worker on duty and resisting arrest from the officers that arrived on the scene later.
Ms Casey said the police officer was not trespassing, clearly in the process of turning around and “doing all he could to leave”.
She said the police officer was in a “hostile, frightening situation” where his weapon was removed from him, and he believed Lord was going to use it against him.
She acknowledged there was contact between Lord’s wife and the vehicle, given the police officer heard a thump; however, she said “he doesn’t swerve towards her”.
Ms Casey said the other officers also had a right of entry on to the property to deal with the immediate threat.
Ms Casey accepted Lord was under “extreme emotional distress” after hearing his wife yell out, and acknowledged that with hindsight he accepted his wife was not in immediate danger.
He will return to court for a plea hearing in January 2026.
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