By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Former AFL footballer Andrew Lovett has been jailed for sustained violent attacks against a woman in Berwick.
Lovett, 39, had pleaded guilty at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court to 24 charges, including assaults, intentionally causing injury and persistent breaches of intervention orders spanning nearly two years.
Between February 2020 and June 2021, there were 14 episodes of family violence.
In sentencing on 17 March, magistrate Jason Ong said it was concerning that Lovett’s family violence “escalated in frequency and seriousness”.
“It cannot be tolerated in our society,” he told the court.
Lovett was found to have inflicted 10 of the assaults after an intervention order in mid-2020 – meaning it rendered “no protection” to his victim.
The “controlling” and “violent” behaviour included Lovett attacking his defenceless partner in the shower in March 2021.
He flung her phone in her direction, shattering it against the wall. He then punched her several times to the head, and kicked her stomach while she lay on the floor.
She was rendered unconscious, Mr Ong noted.
On another occasion, Lovett spat in her face and pushed her backwards causing her head to strike floorboards.
Lovett also bruised his victim’s lip after hurling a shoe at her, slammed her face into a steering wheel while driving, and spat in her face, poured beer on her and kicked her on the ground in her bedroom.
In mid-2021, Lovett struck her several times to the face, choked her with his hands and then let go, causing her head to strike a bath and she blacked out. She armed herself with a knife to escape her house.
From August-December, Lovett repeatedly ignored bail and intervention orders not to contact the victim until he was arrested and remanded.
He resorted to a fake Facebook account and his brother’s phone in his attempts to message and call her.
Mr Ong noted the victim’s impact statement in which she described living in “constant fear” with Lovett.
Her emotional trauma would outlive the physical injuries and bruises inflicted by him, she told the court.
The relationship appeared to be “toxic”, Mr Ong said. A “lifestyle of drugs and alcohol” led to the assaults, but were no excuse.
Through his lawyer, Lovett apologised “unreservedly” to the victim and expressed shame and remorse. However in an interview, Lovett made admissions but minimised or denied most of the assaults, Mr Ong noted.
“I didn’t do it all, some of it was the victim,” Lovett had said.
A psychiatrist report outlined Lovett’s gambling and substance abuse including cocaine and alcohol, as well as a personality disorder.
His drug use spiked due to boredom during Covid lockdown.
Lovett played 88 games for Essendon between 2005-2009.
Since his playing career, he’d upskilled and gained work in the construction industry, including gaining a mobile crane licence and working on the Preston level crossing removal project last year.
Lovett was jailed for eight months, including 100 days served in pre-sentence detention.
After his stint, he will be placed on a 12-month supervised community corrections order including mental health, drug, alcohol and offender programs.
