By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
A FORMERLY “law-abiding” father in the midst of an ‘ice’ addiction lost his 25-year marriage, his job, assaulted his daughter and became a drug trafficker, a court has found.
The man pleaded guilty in Dandenong Magistrates’ Court last Monday to assaulting his 16-year-old daughter and smashing her mobile phone and computer at her Dandenong North home.
His lawyer put the violence down to “ice-fuelled aggression’’.
The man also pleaded guilty to trafficking, though at first he tried to persuade police that up to $20,000 worth of methamphetamine found in his bedroom was for personal use.
Some of it had been allotted into more than 450 deal bags.
Then there was also the 500 grams of cannabis in his garage, as well as scales and about $1815 cash on his person, in his car and home safe.
“It has all the hallmarks of an ongoing enterprise,” magistrate Jack Vandersteen said.
He convicted and ordered the man – who had no prior convictions – to complete 300 hours of unpaid work as part of an 18-month community corrections order.
The man would have been imprisoned for at least six months had he not pleaded guilty, Mr Vandersteen said.
“(Ice) is one of the most insidious drugs in the community.
“Nearly everyone in (the Dandenong police) cells at the moment seems to be affected by methamphetamine.
“You, by trafficking it and possessing it, are contributing to it. If you go back to those drugs… whatever future you hope to have will be disrupted.”
Mr Vandersteen described the man as a “law-abiding person” who had “otherwise been a good father”.
His family breakdown and violence was “reflective” of his ice addiction.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Sue Benskin said police initiated a full intervention order against the man in May after he was accused of “chesting” his daughter causing her to stumble backwards.
The man then threw and irreparably damaged her phone and computer – later telling police he wanted to “inflict a bit of pain on her”. He soon after replaced the damaged items.
That night, he also verbally abused his estranged wife, grabbing and damaging her car door so severely it no longer opened or shut properly.
He then lifted a large plant pot, preparing to throw it through the car’s front windscreen.
After being caught by police, the man had woke up in a “big, big way”, his lawyer said.
The man’s exit report from the court’s credit-bail program was “as good as it gets”.
The lawyer said the man has since continued going to a positive lifestyle program run by the Salvation Army, re-partnered and had high prospects of rehabilitation.
