By Kath Gannaway and Mara Pattison-Sowden
A COURThas heard how a man stabbed a police officer in Healesville and evaded a police across the region for a month.
James Brendan D’Zilva appeared before Magistrate Ian von Einem at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 6 January charged with attempted murder.
D’Zilva was arrested without incident in Richmond on Wednesday morning 5 January and brought into the court after almost a month on the run.
He was there to face four charges relating to the stabbing of Healesville police officer Senior Constable Christopher Bullen at the town’s Shell petrol station on 7 December.
D’Zilva, believed to be from Belgrave, was listed on his charge sheet as being of no fixed address, and was charged with attempted murder, intentionally causing serious injury, recklessly causing serious injury and indictable assault.
Four court artists and about a dozen media made up the majority of the people sitting in Court No 1 as D’Zilva stood behind a glass security wall looking out over the court room.
The court artists scribbled furiously, James D’Zilva under intense scrutiny as their heads bobbed between the dock and their pads as they endeavoured to capture something perhaps not already revealed in the well-worn photo.
In court D’Zilva was dressed in a blue windcheater and shorts and had what might have been a few days’ growth on his face.
There seemed a touch of irony as Magistrate von Einem looked towards the dock and asked “Is this the defendant?” James D’Zilva’s distinctive, dishevelled appearance, notably his dreadlocked hair, has become a household image, plastered on television and in print since 7 December as police searched first around Healesville then as far as Hurstbridge and back to the Dandenongs following sightings in late December.
D’Zilva turned 33 on 28 December as sightings and the search continued around Sassafras, before he was picked up in Richmond last week.
He was represented by Legal Aid defence lawyer James Anderson, who told the court his client had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but didn’t elaborate.
He said D’Zilva had a disability in his left hip and left wrist … “not an injury, an ongoing disability”.
“He is on risperidone for schizophrenia,” Mr Anderson told the magistrate, and added that he didn’t require any medication for the disability.
Asked by the magistrate “Is there anything else you would like to say?” James D’Zilva replied politely “No thankyou” and was led back to the cells.
He has been remanded in custody until a mention hearing on 31 March.
Sen Const Chris Bullen is recovering well at home.
