A MAN accused of firing a gun during a tense domestic violence situation at Mount View last year has now been charged with threatening a witness and breaching an AVO from behind bars.
Sean Bernard Berthold, 59, who last month launched into a tirade and claimed he was being "stitched up", chose not to appear in Cessnock Local Court on Thursday after he was charged recently with two counts of threatening to injure a witness and two counts of breaching an apprehended domestic violence order.
He did not enter any pleas and remains behind bars.
Berthold was last month committed for trial on charges of firing a firearm in a manner likely to injure a person, intimidation, supplying cannabis, using an offensive weapon to commit an indictable offence and possessing two prohibited firearms - a 12 gauge single-barrel shotgun and a .22 calibre rifle.
The charges stem from an alleged domestic violence situation at a property in Pyne Way at Mount View about 7.30pm on August 16 last year, during which Berthold is accused of threatening a woman, 56, with a firearm before firing a shot.
The woman was allegedly able to escape and call police and Berthold was tracked using PolAir to a house at Short Street, Speers Point where he was arrested by specialist police from the Tactical Operations Unit.
Berthold, who is unrepresented because he said Legal Aid NSW won't represent him and he can't access funds to pay a private barrister, appeared in Newcastle Local Court last month and claimed he had been "stitched up", using his time on the audio visual link screen to rail against the process, the police, Legal Aid and the alleged victim.
"I've been set up and stitched up," Berthold said. "There is no evidence. I can't believe I am in jail."
He asked the magistrate to order he be provided a copy of what he said was crucial DNA evidence, a request he repeated when he appeared on screen again a week later.
This time, he was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses that when he removed revealed two badly blackened eyes.
Berthold will next appear in Cessnock Local Court on May 22 on the fresh charges and is due to get a trial date for the alleged shooting in Newcastle District Court the next day.
