By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Dandenong man who showed no remorse after repeatedly stabbing his ex-wife’s boyfriend has been jailed for at least seven years.
Ali Dastmozd, 41, was found guilty by a Victorian Supreme Court jury of aggravated burglary and intentionally causing serious injury.
In a “blind” and “jealous rage” on the night of 1 October 2020, he pushed past his separated former wife at the front door of her home as he searched for her new partner.
“This is my house. This is my wife,” Dastmozd yelled as he cornered the unarmed man in the main bedroom.
The man was chased into the sitting room. In front of two children, Dastmozd repeatedly stabbed the man on the couch.
“I kill you,” Dastmozd repeatedly yelled.
Despite a “huge cut” to his neck, the victim managed to wrestle the knife off his attacker. He fled outside, flung the weapon into a neighbouring yard and sought help at another house.
A pursuing Dastmozd told a neighbour that “if he’s not dead, I’m going to kill him”.
“I told her that if I ever come here and she has boyfriends here, I will kill the motherf***er.”
He then smashed the victim’s Hilux with a tool from his van, inflicting almost $13,000 damage.
Meanwhile, the stabbed man collapsed at a neighbour’s house.
Losing about a litre of blood, he suffered a 20-centimetre laceration cutting his jugular vein and auricular nerve in his neck.
He was taken by ambulance to The Alfred hospital with neck, arm, hand and head injuries.
“(He) is lucky to have survived the injuries that you caused him,” Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said in sentencing on 17 February.
“However they continue to cause him pain and affect him in his daily life.”
As a result of nerve damage, the victim is now unable to work as a tiler. He’s had to sell many assets and borrow to meet his living expenses.
Justice Hollingworth said it was an aggravating feature that Dastmozd exposed two young children to an “incredibly frightening scene”.
The jury found Dastmozd not guilty of attempted murder but he was “clearly stabbing … with the intention of causing significant injuries”.
“You were clearly acting out of jealousy and anger, and in complete disregard of (your former wife’s) right to invite into her own home anyone that she chose.
“Unfortunately, the courts are faced too often with behaviour of this sort, when people resort to violence because they refuse to accept that a relationship is over and that their former partner is entitled to move on with their lives.“
Dastmozd told police at the scene that he’d only used fists in the fight and that he was hit in the head and blacked out.
He still rejected the jury’s verdicts, Justice Hollingworth noted.
“You continue to be angry and resentful that your former wife had a male visitor.
“Incredibly, you still maintain your assertion that (his) wounds were self-inflicted.”
Dastmozd had no prior convictions and a strong work ethic. His rehabilitation prospects were “reasonable … if you are able to overcome your anger and denial, and address your psychological issues”.
The Iranian-born refugee received a five-year protection visa in 2017. He is at risk of deportation after completing his jail term.
Dastmozd was jailed for 10 years and 4 months, with a non-parole period of seven years and two months.
He has already served 869 days in pre-sentence remand.
