Justin Witchall sentenced after week of wild driving, biting police officer

Justin Witchall, 28, was banned from driving for 18 months for his repeatedly dangerous driving. Photo / ODT

A week of wild driving ended with a Dunedin man biting a police officer on the leg, a court has heard.

Justin Philip Witchall (aka Humphreys) was sentenced to four months' home detention when he appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday.

Judge Kevin Glubb noted the 28-year-old had been locked up for the past four months and it was only by a "narrow margin" that he avoided more time behind bars.

The defendant was convicted on an array of driving charges - including two of dangerous driving, driving while forbidden, failing to stop for police, wheelspinning — and two of assaulting police.

On October 15 last year, Witchall bought a Subaru from a friend.

He spent no time tentatively testing the vehicle, however.

Police spotted the defendant the following morning when he sped through a red light in Princes St.

They tried to pull him over in Dowling St but Witchall responded by making an "erratic" turn into Rattray St.

He accelerated hard, putting distance between himself and pursuing units, and overtook in the oncoming lane when it was clear.

In Princes St, Witchall reached almost 100kmh and nearly hit traffic heading in the opposite direction, prompting police to call off the chase.

Despite escaping their clutches, the defendant was not prepared to lay low.

The next day he was reported to be during burnouts in Russell St, which created a large cloud of smoke.

Police found Witchall shortly afterwards and impounded the vehicle — which he had owned for two days — for a month.

But not even that could stop the defendant's appetite for excessive speeding.

At 10pm on October 23, he was clocked doing more than 100kmh in Princes St, a 50kmh zone, driving a Proton with stolen number plates.

Police did not engage in a pursuit but saw the defendant again dangerously crossing into oncoming traffic.

They found Witchall outside his central Dunedin home where he told them he had been in town drinking.

While officers tried to handcuff him, he punched one of them in the face then spat at a second constable.

The belligerence continued at the station where he bit the same officer on the leg while being processed.

Among his 48 previous convictions, which he began accumulating at the age of 17, Witchall made headlines when he was charged over a depraved letter he sent to one of the country's most dangerous paedophiles.

While imprisoned for an aggravated robbery, he sent the coded note to Glen Douglas - the first person in the country to be detained subject to a Public Protection Order - but attached the key to crack the code.

Corrections staff found the letter described desires of "deviant and torturous sexual offending against 4-year-old children" and nine months was added to his sentence.

Judge Glubb said Witchall had few convictions though for driving and violence which allowed him to treat the latest crimes as aberrant.

He also imposed 110 hours' community work and banned the defendant from driving for 18 months.