A man who set off fire hydrants inside a Canberra office building during a drunken rampage has been found guilty of causing more than half a million dollars worth of damage after a judge said his antics were sparked by a minibar binge and not mental illness.
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The offender believed he was in a trance and being chased when he smashed through a window of the Brindabella Business Park building before he turned on four fire hydrants, racking up $550,000 of destruction, and hid under a desk.
Kevin Pahl was under considerable professional stress when he checked into a Queanbeyan motel for work in February 2015.
He had avoided alcohol for two years because he thought it made him "manic", but one night drank his way through four full-strength beers and two 700 millilitre bottles of wine from the motel room's mini-bar over two hours.
Court documents said he had little memory of what happened next but remembered being in a carpark fearful of being chased.
Pahl had driven a Toyota Hilux into the Canberra Airport carpark, crashing through metal bollards and a boom gate before he ploughed the ute into a parking ticket machine, where it became wedged.
He got out of the vehicle and ran to the office building, where he said he turned on the fire hydrants to attract attention to his plight then fled and hid under a work desk.
He later described the experience as "almost like a manic attack".
Police found Pahl huddled under the desk. They said he had bloodshot eyes, smelled strongly of alcohol and struggled to walk.
He admitted to setting off the fire hydrants and was arrested.
Pahl was taken to the ACT Watch House but was sent to hospital after he complained of chest pains. On the way, he grew agitated and said: "I've f---ed up, I've f---ed up."
A blood-alcohol test revealed a reading of 0.154.
Police charged him with trespassing and three counts of reckless property damage. He pleaded not guilty, arguing he suffered a mental impairment at the time and should not be held criminally responsible.
In an ACT Supreme Court decision, published last week, Chief Justice Helen Murrell accepted the man had experienced a psychotic episode triggered by alcohol consumption at the time of his offending and couldn't reason that his actions were wrong.
But she found any mental impairment defence failed partly because there was no evidence he suffered a chronic psychotic condition.
She wasn't satisfied he suffered, as his defence team argued, a mild neurocognitive disorder, and said any post-traumatic stress disorder couldn't be taken into account as it was a reactive condition.
"Unfortunately for the accused, he cannot argue that his behaviour was involuntary because, to the extent that his conduct was involuntary, it was the product of self-induced intoxication."
He will be sentenced later this month.
