Albany man who threatened school shooting and bombing police station in YouTube comment escapes immediate jail

An Albany man who posted a comment on YouTube threatening to shoot up a school and plant bombs near the local police station has had his eight-month prison sentence suspended. Jack Phillip Gould, 34, appeared in Albany Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with acting with intent of creating false belief of a threat or danger while knowing circumstances did not exist at the time of the act and possessing a prohibited drug. The offending prompted magistrate Rosemarie Myers in her sentencing to reference the recent Bondi mass shooting and the homemade explosive device that was allegedly thrown into a crowd of Invasion Day protesters in the Perth CBD. Police prosecutor Sgt Dylan Fisher told the court Gould posted a comment under a YouTube video on January 14, using a YouTube account linked to his personal Gmail address. The comment read “too many brown immigrants, I’m going to I’m going to shoot up the school near me tomorrow and place bombs next to the nearest police station”. Sgt Fisher said because of the violent nature of the comment, it was automatically flagged by YouTube and later reported to police. Gould was arrested on January 22 at the Albany Hotel, where he was living at the time. He was searched upon his arrest where police found about 10g of cannabis on him. Defence lawyer Lucy Bourne said Gould had been intoxicated when he wrote and posted the comment, and had a limited recollection of his actions. She said her client had expressed extreme remorse and embarrassment, and had not intended to carry out either of the actions he wrote about. Gould addressed magistrate Rosemarie Myers directly, saying what he wrote was “absolutely disgusting”, and he “regretted it deeply”. “I don’t have any plans of harming the community or anything like that, it was just a one-off stupid comment,” he said. Ms Myers accepted Gould’s comments and remorse, however did not hesitate to point out the risk to the community caused by his violent words. She said even if Gould himself did not intend to act, someone else who read or shared the comment could have used it to justify their own actions. “Looking at recent incidents like what happened in Bondi, or what happened in Perth over the weekend . . . comments of this nature, whether you meant it or not, are serious enough that the community are expecting you to be stopped from doing anything like that again,” she said. Gould was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. He was also fined $300 for possessing cannabis.