Taj Christopher Ward: Jail term for knife hold-up, ramming police car in Katanning and starting jail cell fire

A Great Southern man who rammed a Katanning police car in February, threatened three people at knifepoint, and set his jail cell on fire, has been jailed. Taj Christopher Ward was sentenced in Perth District Court on November 15 for criminal damage by fire, making an unlawful threat, and endangering the life, health, or safety of a person. The 24-year-old was charged for threatening three people at knife point at a work site in Katanning on February 12, encouraging them to call police. An off-duty police officer saw the threat and later re-attended the scene in uniform and in a police car with another officer in his company. In his grandmother’s car, Ward drove at telephone boxes before rear-ending the occupied police car, getting his vehicle stuck underneath. The two officers got out of the car and drew their weapons before pulling Ward out of his car to question him. While being held on remand in Hakea Prison for the ramming incident, Ward deliberately stuck an object into a power point and started a fire in his cell. The fire was extinguished by prison officers who fed a hose through the closed cell door to combat the flames with a “whole lot of water”. District Court Judge David MacLean said the police officers would have found the “entirely unexpected” situation “confronting”. “I don’t know why it was that you needed to demonstrate the bravado, false or otherwise, to police, but it does seem to me that what you were doing was acting in a way to ensure that police attended,” he said. “That police arrested you, and that you ended up being locked up, so to that end you achieved, it seems to me, what it was that you wanted to achieve. “Fortunately, it appears that nobody involved in the accident, either you or the police officers, sustained any significant physical injury by reason of your conduct.” Judge MacLean said Ward engaged in “destructive behaviour in diabolical circumstances” while he was 23. A medical report suggested Ward may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder that he misuses substances to manage along with his emotions, impulsivity, and anger issues. Judge MacLean took into account Ward’s personal circumstances and young age in sentencing. The 24-year-old was sentenced to two years and two months jail, and was made eligible for parole.