By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A SPRINGVALE South woman told police she thought she was going to die after her ex-partner allegedly threw her against furniture, punched her face and slammed her head into a concrete driveway in rage, a court has heard.
At a court bail hearing on Monday, Constable Christopher Brinkman, of Dandenong police, said the man later told police: “Next time I go there I’ll do more damage”.
The man had regularly “ignored” a full family-violence intervention order protecting the victim since October 2014, police alleged.
Since the order, the victim claimed she’d received 300 text and phone messages from the man and he’d visited her twice a week.
On 5 August, the man allegedly tore the front gate from a side fence at the ex-partner’s home – though he claimed in court his ex-partner had hit the gate as she reversed the car.
The court was told the man allegedly drove her vehicle past her, missing her by “centimetres” on 16 August, Const Brinkman said.
The man slammed her head into her home’s wall and into the driveway as she screamed for help. She was thrown through the home’s door, into a kitchen bench and into bookshelves. The man then stood over her and punched her face, causing significant swelling to her left eye, the court was told.
The man allegedly threw her car keys and handbag onto her home’s roof. These were later retrieved at a neighbour’s behest.
The man was arrested after being found hiding in a back shed at his mother’s house.
Earlier, the police called the man’s phone, which was answered by his “whimpering” mother. In the background was loud crashing and a man’s shouts.
“Please don’t,” she was heard saying to the man.
The applicant told the court he needed to care for his mother, who had debilitating arthritis, and had suffered two heart-attacks and a heart bypass.
He said he was seeing a psychiatrist who had been a “big help”.
The man was twice convicted for assaults against her and with contravening an intervention order last year.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen remanded the man in custody for a contest mention at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 28 August.
Mr Vandersteen refused bail because of the man’s long history of violence against the victim spanning 10 police attendances and more than 10 years.
The man’s persistent breach of the intervention order and the seriousness of his assaults also posed an “unacceptable risk”.
“The risk to the affected family member is just too high.”
