By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A MAN continued to stalk and threaten to kill a former girlfriend for two months after being reported to police for allegedly locking her in a bedroom and threatening to slit her throat in mid-January.
At Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Monday, Daniel Mario Pehar, 24, of no fixed abode, was refused his bail application for offences including false imprisonment, assaults, stalking and threats to kill the ex-partner.
His charges included breaching an intervention order against his Endeavour Hills mother when he allegedly banged on her front door, smashed off its handle and kicked in a window on 6 March.
The court was told that Pehar allegedly breached a 12-month community corrections order handed down last year for “almost identical” offending in 2011.
On that occasion he was convicted for twice threatening to kill another former girlfriend, assaulting her at home and locking her in a basement.
According to a police summary, his “lengthy history” of family violence dates back to 2006.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen, in refusing bail, said Pehar was an “unacceptable risk” of endangering public safety and interfering with witnesses.
“These are serious allegations of actual violence against your girlfriend and your mother,” he said.“You have been undeterred by police involvement.”
On 13 January, an “aggressive and demanding” Pehar allegedly grabbed the then-girlfriend’s arms from behind and pushed her into the bedroom, locking the door behind them.
He allegedly grabbed the woman’s hair, threw her on the bed and spat on her.
He told her if she tried “going walkabout again, I will slit your throat then I will slit mine”.
During that night, Pehar denied the woman access to the toilet, food or water and forced her to stay in the bedroom with him.
She escaped through the unlocked door the next morning and reported the incident to Endeavour Hills police.
The woman didn’t return to the house nor to Pehar but was allegedly texted, called, stalked and had her life threatened by Pehar for two months until his arrest.
In a 20-day period, she allegedly received 2973 texts and calls from Pehar, including a large number of sexually “obscene” texts of “what he would like to do to her”.
The court was told Pehar was arrested on 12 March after obeying a request by police to attend Springvale Police Station.
He had earlier broken a window where the victim was staying at 3am.
Senior Constable Matt Davey of Greater Dandenong police’s Family Violence Unit, told the court that Pehar’s former girlfriend and her family were “extremely frightened about their safety”.
“I’ve never stood in the witness box and said that I fear for a person’s life before.
“That’s what I’m doing today.”
Sen Const Davey told the court that police had been unable to serve an intervention order on Pehar for two months because of his homelessness and refusal to comply with “numerous” requests to attend Endeavour Hills Police Station.
The court was told Pehar had been arrested for driving an unregistered vehicle and possessing a knife in the car’s centre console on 24 January.
An intervention order couldn’t be served on Pehar because he failed to appear on bail on 30 January.
Pehar’s lawyer argued that he was ready to be released because he had “dried out” from his ‘ice’ addiction while remanded for the past four weeks.
Pehar was back to “a person who thinks and feels normally” after his “enforced detox”, his lawyer said.
She said Pehar had used ice on a daily basis for two years.
Mr Vandersteen retorted that Pehar’s similar offences in 2011 had predated his methamphetamine addiction.
“A key indicator of future behaviour is past behaviour.”
