By JEREMY KELLY
Magistrates' Court reporter

A VICTORIAN farmer living in a heavily fortified house with an arsenal claims to have seceded from Australia.
Brian Charles Fyffe, also known as His Royal Highness Prince Brian of Tyrone, does not recognise the laws of Victoria.
Police allege the Gippsland dairy farmer is a danger to the public.
Mr Fyffe, 60, was yesterday refused bail in Melbourne Magistrates' Court after police said he had sheriff's officers in fear of their lives.
Det. Sgt Ken Mason told the court Mr Fyffe had threatened to kill a sheriff's officer in May when told he had to vacate his 205ha farm.
Officers spent four months preparing the raid on Mr Fyffe's Carrajung farm because they understood he was well-armed and would do anything to protect "his principality".
Det Sgt Mason said he had moved his bed into his hallway, had a semi-automatic gun nearby and a swag of other weapons, all loaded.
The house's window had steel mesh outside and were fortified inside with hay bales.
Det. Sgt Mason said Mr Fyffe was an intelligent man who was battling authorities through the courts.

"But he is quite prepared to go outside these boundaries when it suits him," he said.
Mr Fyffe's lawyer, Patrick Casey, told the court Mr Fyffe's dispute started in 1984 after an insurance claim on a burnt-out bulldozer led to him losing his business.
The State Government sought to repossess the farm, which had been in the family for 50 years, and won in the Suprme Court in May.
Mr Fyffe is appealing that decision in the High Court, arguing the laws of the country are invalid and that the property is his fiefdom.

His argument involves the Magna Carta, the Bible and various Acts of Parliament.
But despite it being a "highly unusual case", Mr Casey said his client's claim was not frivolous or vexatious. "He believes he has the law on his side and he can win."
Mr Fyffe did not pose a risk, he said, because the alleged threats invloved his property, which he had now been evicted from.
But prosecutor Sen-Constable Robert Wallace tendered evidence Mr Fyffe spent a year behind bars in the late '80s for possessing alarm clocks altered to trigger explosives.
Magistrate Lisa Hannan said the threat to kill charge was compounded by the number of weapons in Mr Fyffe's possession.
She refused bail and ordered Mr Fyffe to appear in Sale Magistrates' Court on November 28 to face eight charges. A charge that Mr Fyffe was in possession of a machinegun was yesterday withdrawn.
Mr Fyffe's wife and adult children left the court disappointed yesterday. The family said he had been singled out because of his constitutional stance and he was not a risk to the community.