By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Burmese asylum seeker had no memory of threatening to kill his wife and mother of three while holding a kitchen knife to her throat, a court has heard.
The Noble Park man was drunk when he had arrived home on 18 November and aggressively banged on the door and window, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court heard.
When his wife let him inside, he banged a 30-centimetre hole in the wall.
When she told him she’d call the police, he threatened her with the knife.
She trembled with fear as he left the home with the knife in hand.
Later in the night he repeated his threat to his wife and was overheard by an interpreter.
“If you call the police, when I come back from the police station, I’ll cut your throat,” he allegedly said.
The accused’s lawyer told the court on 28 November that the man had a “limited memory” due to his extreme drunkenness that evening, but was very upset when he heard the allegations.
The man pleaded guilty to the assaults.
“He doesn’t usually consume alcohol,” the lawyer said.
“It was one of the rare occasions he drank.”
Since arriving in Australia in 2013, the man and his family had been under stress due to their uncertain future on a bridging visa, the lawyer said.
He was without known mental health issues or drug and alcohol dependencies.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen ordered the man’s exclusion from the family home as part of an interim intervention order – despite his wife’s wishes for him to live there.
“You really need to prove over time you’re not an ongoing risk to your family.”
The man was jailed for 10 days – which was already served in remand – and put on a 12 month community corrections order with conviction and judicial monitoring.
