An arrest warrant has been issued for a 38-year-old man who failed to appear in court over his alleged involvement in the beheading of a bronze statue of pioneering Western Australian prospector Paddy Hannan.
The monument to the Irish prospector’s famous gold discovery at Kalgoorlie in 1893 was targeted by vandals on October 11 but has since been repaired.
While the most obvious damage was the statue’s missing head, its right arm was also nearly severed.
A woman was airlifted to Perth with serious injuries to her foot in connection with the incident.
Police have charged at least two people over the incident and allege the damage was done with a claw hammer.
The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder has estimated the repair bill at $10,500, but says insurance will cover the cost.
Timothy Giles Walker was due to appear in the Laverton Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday charged with damaging property but did not show up.
It was the second time he had failed to appear in court on the damage charge after missing a January 8 appearance in Kalgoorlie.
But he did appear at court in Laverton on January 18 when the matter was adjourned for legal advice without any pleas being entered.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Brent Reid asked the court to deal with the damage charge in Mr Walker’s absence, under section 55 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
It allows the courts to deal with matters without the accused present, if the magistrate is satisfied they have been served with the prosecution notice containing the charge and a court hearing notice.
But Murray Stubbs, from the Aboriginal Legal Service of WA, raised an objection because he wanted to familiarise himself with the “very unusual facts” of the case, which was supported.
Magistrate Janie Gibbs granted the prosecutor’s request for an arrest warrant.
The application was due to Mr Walker breaching his bail by failing to appear on an unrelated arson charge, from an incident in Laverton on December 21.
The original statue of Paddy Hannan — who, alongside fellow prospectors Tom Flanagan and Daniel Shea, sparked one of Australia’s biggest gold rushes at Kalgoorlie — was erected on the street that bears his name in 1929.
By 1982, ongoing vandalism saw the council move the original inside the Kalgoorlie Town Hall to ensure its survival, replacing it with a bronze replica.