A woman swears and pitches a cup of water at a magistrate, a man dances before he pulls a cigarette lighter from his pants and sets fire to a cell, a rugby star calls police to report his own drink driving.
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Canberra's courts have been the stage for the human drama and heartbreak of a string of domestic violence murder cases, high-profile rape trials and child sex abuse allegations in recent times.
This year was no different.
However, many days the tension and trauma that play out in the ACT's courtrooms is tempered by the puzzling, colourful or downright bizarre.
Here are some of the cases that had us scratching our heads in 2017.
'You don't know shit, dog'
It wasn't the typical response to a failed bid for bail. When Tracey Organ learned she'd be heading back to prison she tossed a cup of water at a Canberra magistrate before yelling "F--- you, you hear me?".
Ms Organ, 38, screamed, "You don't know shit, dog", at Magistrate Peter Morrison before she was dragged back down to the cells after he refused her bail on drug and property crime charges.
Mr Morrison's face and robe dripped with water but he was otherwise unmoved as he quipped: "That is why we replaced the glasses on the bar table with plastic cups."
Ms Organ returned to court a few weeks later, when the usual water jug and cups were absent from the bar table. She was jailed for 21 days for contempt of court over her "spectacular, defiant and very public conduct".
'What goes in the safe, stays in the safe'
A Canberra detainee who set fire to his court cell with a cigarette lighter he stashed in his buttocks told officers who strip searched him: "What goes in the safe, stays in the safe."
Footage showed Rhys Liam Brown, 26, fishing the cigarette lighter out of his pants and dancing before he held the lighter to the padded walls and later scorched the screen of a CCTV camera.
He had warned Corrective Services officers: "If I get remanded, shit will happen."
Brown pleaded guilty to arson and property damage and was sentenced to one year and eight months imprisonment.
Rugby league star reports own drink driving
Canberra Raiders star Josh Papalii twice called the police to report his own drink-driving.
Police discovered the anonymous tip off that led them to the player had come from Papalii's phone.
He admitted he twice called triple zero to report his own car driving erratically "to prove a point". However, the ACT Magistrates Court did not hear what point Papalii, 24, was trying to prove.
He pleaded guilty to drink driving in Gungahlin after he left captain Jarrod Croker's engagement party. He was fined $1000 and axed from the Kangaroos side to face New Zealand
Magistrate Morrison noted the "curious circumstances" and accepted Papalii's emergency calls were "something of a cry for help".
It was the latest bizarre incident involving the rugby league player, who once threw a one litre bottle of moisturiser at another motorist.
'I wanted them to like me'
In another football-related misdemeanour, a Canberra man who peddled cocaine to rugby league stars Kevin Proctor and Jesse Bromwich hours after the Anzac test "wanted to get on it with his heroes", a court heard.
Adrian Mark Crowther, 45, was fined more than $5000 after he was captured on CCTV cutting lines of the drug on his mobile phone for two men to snort through a rolled bank note outside Cube nightclub in Civic.
Crowther's lawyer said his client said of the NRL players: "These guys were my heroes, I looked up to them and wanted them to like me.
"I had something they wanted and I wanted them to like me."
He was fined more than $5000 and ordered to serve a 12-month good behaviour order for possessing cocaine and MDMA, and cocaine supply.
Culleton's private prosecution bid fails
It was over almost as soon as it began.
Former One Nation senator Rod Culleton's attempt to launch a rare private prosecution against then federal attorney-general George Brandis was thrown out weeks after it first landed in court.
Mr Culleton alleged the senator attempted to pervert the course of justice by misleading the Senate over matters that led to his dismissal.
His bid to explain the background of the legal action prompted Magistrate Karen Fryar to remark in court:
"This is not the place to grandstand, Mr Culleton. I don't care what happened in the Senate, what matters is what happens here."
Prosecutors soon took over the case, despite Mr Culleton's objections, and the court swiftly dismissed the charges.
Outside court, Mr Culleton had declared it "a great case".
"People now, if their senators aren't going to step up and properly represent their constituents like I am, they can file a private prosecution for $80 in here and go their hardest. I think it's great."
Fit of patriotic rage
One man's fit of patriotic rage was another man's violent assault when a top Venezuelan cross country skiier faced court in Canberra over a stoush at that nation's embassy.
César Augusto Baena Sierraalta 30, told police he believed his country had been disrespected and its sovereignty violated after the landlord blockaded the O'Malley embassy over an unpaid rental bill.
Baena punched the landlord, 71, after the pair argued over the blockade, which prevented access to the building by staff and members of the public.
He was handed a good behaviour order and apologised outside court. "This is not the way I am. I was very under duress at that moment."
"It's not something to be done as a public figure."
Time to grow up
Justice Richard Refshauge was not mad, he was just disappointed.
The ACT Supreme Court judge had to sentence Jason Andrew McMahon, 41, in light of the offender's "long and disgraceful" criminal history, a string of broken promises to kick his drug habit and bail breaches.
His five failed attempts at rehab and a wave of offending attracted a suspended jail term. It also triggered a stern word from Justice Refshauge.
"Mr McMahon, I am disappointed," he said. "I've given you opportunities; you now have to pay for failing to do that.
"You've got to, finally, at 41, grow up. It's time to take control of your life."
Socks on hands
A Canberra man knew there would be trouble when he handed his bank card to two intruders who stormed his flat with striped socks on their hands and wielding a miniature sledgehammer and a knife.
The victim woke early that morning to find Manoa Satala Chevalier, 27, and another man in his unit, before the two demanded cash and drugs then fled.
Chevalier stabbed the victim in the back and he suffered a punctured lung. A jury found him guilty of charges including aggravated burglary.
