By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A jealous man who tracked and brutally pummeled his estranged wife’s new beau at a country getaway has escaped ‘mandatory’ jail after her impassioned mercy plea to the court.
In a “unique” and “exceptional” case, the County Court of Victoria granted mercy to the Endeavour Hills man to spare hardship to his ex-wife and – in the main – to his three young children on the autism spectrum.
The Star Journal has chosen not to name the man so as to not identify the children.
The man had tracked the couple with a mobile phone in her car’s boot to a Halls Gap cottage late at night in August 2018.
Armed with a metal pole, he entered the cabin and bashed the male victim with “full force”.
Six or seven “substantial” blows struck the victim’s head and several to the torso, judge David Brookes said during sentencing on 20 November.
The victim managed to hide in vegetation. He sought help at a neighbouring cottage where he fell unconscious.
In hospital, he received stitches for deep cuts behind his ear, to his forehead and leg.
He later told police that he thought he was going to die during the attack.
At one stage, the attacker stood over him and directly struck him with the pole to the forehead.
The accused man told his former wife not to be afraid.
He then drove at least 260 kilometres to Dandenong police station, where he made fulsome admissions about 2.25am.
According to the defendant, he had known about the couple’s “friendship”.
But until his arrival at the cottage that night, he didn’t realise their relationship was romantic.
This spontaneously spurred his violent reaction, he argued.
The man pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary with an intent to assault – an offence punishable with a maximum 25 years’ jail.
He also pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury and contravening a bail condition.
On 20 November, Judge David Brookes noted that too often perpetrators are men who act with a “possessive violent rage” after a break-up.
These types of “domestic” aggravated burglaries had the potential to escalate to “serious harm” and “real tragedy”.
Judge Brookes noted the defendant had no prior convictions, made great strides to rehabilitate and was generally remorseful.
But it was only “exceptional” hardship to his family that spared him a “normally mandatory” jail term.
It was “paradoxical” that the leniency benefited the mother, who was one of the victims.
Which was why mercy could only be extended in “stringent circumstances,” Judge Brookes said.
A clinical report stated the children were diagnosed as ASD Level 2, requiring substantial support for their entire lives.
They depended on routine. Great life changes could cause a “cascading” cognitive and developmental impacts over many years.
In a letter to the court, the man’s former wife argued she couldn’t “fathom the damage” to the children if their father was jailed.
“It would turn their little worlds upside-down,” she wrote.
As the primary caregiver, she relied on him financially and to help her solely focus on her children’s needs.
He paid the mortgage on the family home as well as for the children’s special schools and uniforms.
Without his support, she and the children would be likely uprooted, seeking a new home, schools and therapists.
With limited help from family, her only respite was provided by the defendant twice a week. It allowed her time to rest, shop, do housework.
She described even a simple trip to buy bread would require pre-communication with the children.
It would often be cancelled due to their anxiety in going to the shops.
The children would “count down the sleeps” for the regular fun activities with their “far more focused” Dad, she wrote.
“If they were to find out (the defendant) was in jail, it would send them so far backwards.”
The man was placed on a four-year supervised community corrections order. It included 200 hours of unpaid work.
Up to 100 hours of the work component could be used for mental health treatment.
