Manjimup man Mason Glenn Nix made 80 phone calls asking police what would happen if he ‘killed an officer’

A South West man repeatedly asked police across a number of stations what they would do if he killed an officer and even questioned if they were “worthy of life.” Mason Glenn Nix, 28, was handed a 12-month Commonwealth Recognisance Order after pleading guilty to using a carriage service to harass law enforcement in Manjimup Magistrates Court earlier this month. Between January and September 2020, the Manjimup man made about 80 phone calls to officers in WA, including 37 to the Bunbury Police Station and 27 to Perth, with the remainder to Bridgetown and Collie. Among the more serious phone calls included the man contacting the Bunbury police on April 20 and asking the officer “are you worthy of life?” In another phone call Nix contacted officers in Perth and asked: “What would you do if I killed a police officer?” Nix, who is autistic, was arrested in September 2020 and spent a night in the Manjimup police lock-up. Legal Aid lawyer Gemma Horstman, who represented Nix, said the phone calls were “out of character” for the man and he accepted what he did was not socially acceptable. Magistrate Belinda Coleman said Nix had an “amazing and unique brain” and people who were autistic could misunderstand what was appropriate to say. However, Ms Coleman told the man it was not OK to continually call police and harass them. She sentenced Nix to a 12-month Commonwealth Recognisance Order, which means he is required to stay out of trouble for the next year. Nix was also granted a spent conviction.