Court told axe was used to destroy neighbour’s clothes line

A Milpara man has been placed on a 12-month community-based order for being found by police hiding a knife in his underwear and destroying his neighbour’s washing line with an axe. On two consecutive days in December, Tobias Raymond Locking, 32, jumped the fence of his Milpara home to attack his neighbour’s property, the Albany Magistrate’s Court was told last Thursday. Some time between 9am and 5pm on December 28, Locking used an axe to destroy his neighbour’s metal washing line, worth $450, police prosecutors said. Just before 1pm the next day, Locking climbed the same neighbour’s roof and cut cables of the home’s TV antenna and Foxtel satellite dish. The court was also told police caught Locking hiding a folded knife with an 8cm blade in his underwear on October 23. He pleaded guilty to carrying the knife with intent to cause fear and two counts each of property damage and trespass. Locking was handed a $400 fine for the trespass offences and ordered to pay $510 in compensation to his neighbour by Magistrate Raelene Johnston.