By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Dandenong man has been refused bail while accused of stalking and telling his Mernda ex-partner to “sleep with one eye open” because he would slit her throat.
The man had recently escalated his unpredictability and aggression, police informant First Constable Courtney Milner told a Dandenong Magistrates’ Court bail hearing on 23 October.
On 20 October, the man allegedly messaged the victim that “I’m coming over … I don’t give a f*** about the coppers. You’ve created all this.”
He followed that with other messages threatening to kill her and three friends, and to report her to authorities as an unfit mother, First Const Milner said.
“I’m not going to stop until I crush you.”
Two days later he allegedly warned her to “sleep with one open, c***, because I’ll slit your throat open”.
When arrested and interviewed by police, the man denied the latter threat. He threatened to “smash” the victim, not kill her, he told police.
Police opposed bail due to the risk of the man re-offending and his threats alarming the “extremely fearful” victim, First Const Milner said.
He had inflicted family violence at least five times to two different victims, the informant said.
In December, the man had been jailed for 70 days and placed on an 18-month corrections order for a string of violent offences against the same victim last year.
The offences included:
* Slapping the victim’s face in front of her children in her garage;
* Opening her car door, holding a lighter up to the roof and threatening to destroy her car;
* Parking outside her home and threatening to kill himself;
* Driving a car through her fence;
* Trying to run her over as she walked home, and then crashing into a pole as he sped away from police;
* Forcibly shaking the victim’s father;
* Forcibly shaking the victim until she passed out in front of her children;
* Banging her head against the car window while she was driving.
The man told the court he’d gone off his mental-health medication recently so he could go back to work.
“No one will employ me with all these drugs in my system.”
The man said he stayed in the house most of the time, and it was the victim who “stalks and harasses me” with frequent phone calls.
He said that his phone had been seized by police and he couldn’t remember the victim’s numbers.
He added: “I just found a place for my 19-year-old daughter. She lives in an ice house at the moment.”
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen noted the man’s “long history of violence” including a pattern of stalking the victim.
No conditions would justify bail due to the unacceptable risk of the man re-offending, the judge said.
The man was remanded to appear at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 15 November.
