Albany man fined for trespassing in ‘sensitive’ location, setting up bedroom in the back of a funeral parlour

An Albany man has been fined after he set up camp in the back room of a funeral home, only to be discovered by a surprised woman and her children. Julian Wesley Charles Gartner, 47, appeared in Albany Magistrates Court on February 26 charged with trespassing. Police prosecutor Sgt Dylan Fisher said on January 14 at about 10.54am, a woman at the Albany Funeral Directors noticed a fence in the rear yard was damaged and the 47-year-old in the garden. No one was expected to have been at the premises apart from the woman and her two children at the time. Gartner snuck out via a roller door as soon as he was seen. Further inspection of the building revealed a back room of the parlour set up as a bedroom, with a bed, chairs and bags of personal items. Gartner was arrested soon after and pleaded guilty to the single charge on February 26. Defence lawyer Lucy Bourne claimed Gartner, who has no fixed address and has accumulated a “high number” of trespass offences over the past decade, had only set up camp in the parlour for the one night after he was moved on from his prior accommodation. She noted he suffers from PTSD following a knife stab attack in York in 2024 and struggled physically and mentally. Sgt Fisher said the location of the trespassing offence was “extremely sensitive”, which magistrate Anne Longden agreed was a “point well made”. “It is definitely not the nicest place to be trespassing,” she said. Ms Longden fined him $700 for the offence.