Markets 
Rex Martinich
A man accused of ramming a synagogue’s gates and later referencing the Bondi shootings has been granted bail after a psychiatrist found his psychosis was linked to drug use.
Matthew Alexander Donald De Campo was arrested shortly after he allegedly partially knocked down a front gate of Brisbane Synagogue with a Toyota HiLux at 7.16pm on February 20.
The 32-year-old Sunnybank man was charged with wilful damage, serious vilification or hate crime as well as methamphetamine possession and has pleaded not guilty.
The alleged incident was classified as an anti-Semitic hate crime based on De Campo’s alleged statements to police, a magistrate has previously heard.
De Campo on Wednesday resumed his application for bail in Brisbane Supreme Court after the matter had been adjourned to allow an evaluation by prison psychiatric services.
“The circumstances of aggravation seem to be based on an interview that he gave where he was clearly severely under the influence of drugs or mentally unwell,” defence barrister Gregory McGuire previously told the court.
Crown prosecutor Julie Aylward had opposed bail at that time and Justice Soraya Ryan said she could not grant bail for De Campo “in the absence of a psychiatric opinion that keeping him clean (off drugs) will reduce the risk” from relapse into psychosis.
After receiving De Campo’s psychiatric report, Ryan found on Wednesday that reducing De Campo’s risk of offending or endangering the community while on bail was linked to abstaining from methamphetamine and cannabis.
“(The psychiatrist’s) ultimate conclusion persuades me that bail risks are limited to drug consumption rather than pervasive mental illness,” the judge said.
De Campo had a fixation on a variety of religions at the time of his arrest and had previous convictions for possessing knives and replica handguns, Ryan previously heard.
“In this particular climate of offences being committed against Jewish people, and he himself references Bondi, the risk of re-offending and the risk to safety of others cannot be ameliorated,” Aylward previously said.
Aylward on Wednesday did not oppose bail but sought conditions prohibiting De Campo from possessing weapons.
“It’s difficult to say in those circumstances (of staying in residential care) that the risks would not be ameliorated,” Aylward said.
De Campo would be required to live in a drug rehabilitation and mental health clinic while on bail and would need court permission to move out, Ryan said.
“The thorough assessment of (De Campo’s) mental state confirms that any bail risk arises out of drug use and that the relevant risks may be reduced to an acceptable level,” she said.
The psychiatrist stated in her report he seemed to experience “a drug-induced psychosis secondary to methamphetamine dependence in the months leading up to his arrest in the background of chronic cannabis dependence”.
De Campo, who was not present in court, was granted bail and ordered to report for intake into a mental health care centre on Thursday.
His charges will be subject to a pre-trial review on July 2 in Brisbane Magistrates Court.
With AAP
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