Benjamin Malcolm Longbottom pleads guilty to producing knife ‘in way which may cause fear’ at Gateway Hotel

A Manjimup man has admitted to using a large hunting knife to intimidate workers at a popular bottle shop in a bizarre incident earlier this year. Benjamin Malcolm Longbottom pleaded guilty to being armed in a way which may cause fear in Manjimup Magistrates Court on Thursday after producing a 34cm hunting knife when he was refused service at the Gateway Hotel on February 15. Longbottom drove to the drive-through section of the Gateway Hotel in the early afternoon when he was asked to apologise to a worker for “an incident” from the previous week. When Longbottom would not say sorry, the staff member refused to serve him, which caused the man to reverse his car out of the drive-through passage and hold a hunting knife out of his window before saying “see this, see this”. Details of the incident the workers referred to did not emerge in court. The court heard the staff member immediately walked into the Gateway Hotel and contacted police while Longbottom drove away. When police arrived at the establishment they reviewed the CCTV footage where they collected a description of the car, licence plate and image of the man. Police then drove to Longbottom’s address where they found the man still wearing the same clothes from the incident, which he admitted to causing. Legal Aid defence lawyer Gemma Horstman described the entire episode as a “bizarre incident” which was out of character for Longbottom. Magistrate Linda Keane asked Ms Horstman what the “incident” which required an apology from Longbottom was, which the duty lawyer said related to the man being unable to produce his proof of vaccination and becoming belligerent and refusing to leave until threatened by staff to have police called out if he continued to harass them. Ms Horstman said it was an “extremely stupid thing” for Longbottom to produce a knife after being refused service and the man was open about the issues he has with “keeping cool”. Ms Keane said “it would have been very upsetting” for the staff member present to have a knife produced in front of them after simply performing their job. Longbottom was sentenced to a six-month community-based order which will require him to book appointments with a social worker and take part in any recommendation they have regarding potential anger management counselling.