![James Quinn, then known as James Calleja, during court proceedings in 2016. James Quinn, then known as James Calleja, during court proceedings in 2016.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/166161973/1812363e-7933-4167-b120-6ea8daa1b61f.jpg/r0_0_4208_2801_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A Romsey man who claims Victoria Police are persecuting him has been convicted in his absence on three sets of charges at the Bendigo Magistrates' Court this week.
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James Steven Quinn attended court on Tuesday, June 25 and Wednesday, June 26 and regaled the magistrates with allegations about abusive police treatment and dire claims about his situation.
Quinn - who told the court he had changed his name from Calleja after a furore around a 2016 animal cruelty conviction for which he was jailed - walked out of both hearings when the presiding magistrates ruled they would go ahead despite his lack of legal representation.
The 42-year-old failed to turn up for a third hearing, on Thursday, having sent a message to the court that he had health issues.
Police harassing him, Quinn claims
In a spray of comments and complaints, he had referred to "ongoing abuse ... over the last decade" which included being "kicked in the face" at one police station and "pushed off the steps" of another.
"I've walked into police stations and I'm sworn at and thrown out the door," he told Magistrate Jo Metcalf.
The police were "continuing to harass" him and his family, he alleged.
After walking out of Tuesday's hearing of two charges against him - including assaulting an emergency services worker by spitting - because he didn't want to represent himself, Quinn on Wednesday again told the magistrate he needed time to find and pay for a lawyer.
He had contacted four different law firms in the area without success, but believed "someone would take [his case] on", he said, and he hoped to make enough money to pay for his defence by selling firewood.
The court heard Legal Aid had a conflict of interest and was unable to help Quinn.
Ms Metcalf acknowledged he was "clearly very unhappy with a range of things that have happened" but pointed out that the date for Quinn's hearing on alleged driving offences before her had been set months ago and she resolved to proceed with it.
Quinn once again refused to enter a plea and left the courtroom.
On being told he was under arrest, Quinn sped off in his black ute
In his absence, Ms Metcalf entered a not guilty plea on his behalf and heard charges against him of failing to stop a motor vehicle and remain stopped when ordered to by police, driving while suspended, driving unregistered and driving carelessly.
The court heard from the Romsey police officers who stopped Quinn at Riddells Creek on September 16, and watched body-worn camera footage of the incident.
The video showed Quinn filming the officers on his mobile phone after being pulled over, and reluctantly winding down his window to them, asking if he would be attacked.
When Senior Constable Simon Bowen told him he had an outstanding warrant for failing to attend court the previous day, he answered that he had not attended because police had (at some point) "attacked and half crippled" him.
On being told he was unlicensed, his car was unregistered and he was under arrest, Quinn said he was going to his nearby wood yard and sped off in his black ute, passing by Sergeant Ed Barake close enough for him to step forward and slap the bonnet.
He had 'a bit of a deranged look on his face'
The officers followed him down a single-lane dirt track that turned into a dead end, and watched him reverse his ute into a tree as he turned around, they said.
Quinn then drove back towards them, mounting the verge to pass them by so closely it had seemed he might hit their car, wearing what the senior constable described as "a bit of a deranged look on his face".
His driving had been "erratic and too fast" on "a road full of potholes", according to the police.
The court heard the officers hadn't found Quinn again that day despite sending a divisional van to his wood yard and hadn't ended up interviewing him about the charges.
According to Sergeant Barake, Quinn was "a very difficult man to catch up with".
Ms Metcalf convicted Quinn on all four charges, cancelling his licence and disqualifying him from driving for 12 months, and fining him a total of $2000.
A phone in his bag was recording the proceedings
On Thursday, June 27, Magistrate Russell Kelly also heard charges against Quinn in his absence.
The court heard that on November 6 last year after being prosecuted in the magistrates' court, Quinn had been arrested on an outstanding warrant and when he was searched was found to have a phone in his bag that was illegally recording the court proceedings.
Police hadn't interviewed him about that matter either, largely because of "his demeanour", the court heard.
Mr Kelly convicted Quinn of making an unauthorised recording of court proceedings and fined him $2000.
He also found him to have breached his bail conditions, but dismissed the charge.
Quinn is due back in court on another matter in July.