A Wangaratta man who admitted to months of harassment, threats and abuse of a former partner has been released from jail and given a chance to comply with court orders. The 55-year-old appeared at Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court via a link from the Metropolitan Remand Centre pleading guilty to persistent breaches of family violence orders, threats, stalking, harassment and assault. The court heard the man and a Melbourne woman had been in a casual relationship from January 2024 to April this year. The man used two different mobile phones to communicate with the victim, including one under a different name and two different Facebook profiles. Court orders which were placed on the 55-year-old from December last year restricting contact between the pair would be continually breached. The man used abusive and threatening language to the victim and called them countless derogatory terms. Throughout one week in March, the man called or texted the victim more than 1000 times. The court heard the victim felt if they blocked or ignored the man, it would only fuel his abuse. During a stay at the victim’s home on 17 April, the woman snuck out of bed with the accused and went to sleep in the spare room during the middle of the night. The accused approached the victim and spat in her face while she was in bed, hurling vicious abuse. He made 50 calls to the woman in one day later that month, asking if he could stay at her place to appear at court for the prior offending. When denied, the victim was frightened by threatening messages, with the man telling the woman he would “punch her teeth in”. From May the 55-year-old contacted the woman hundreds of times and 658 times throughout July, despite more court orders placed against him. He began another message tirade on 30 July, including a video of himself spitting into his phone camera and he was arrested later that day. He told police he didn’t recall contacting the woman and if he did it was because he “was on the gear”. Defence counsel Nadia Giorgianni said her client was committed to bringing a stop to his alcohol and drug abuse which had in the most part led him to threaten the woman with “vulgar, horrible” abuse. Ms Giorgianni said the 55-year-old’s first stint behind bars in a decade had been sobering for him, not only due to his withdrawal from substances. “It has shown him if he continues this unruly behaviour the only place he will end up in is back in custody,” she said. “This may well be the wake up call he needed.” Ms Giorgianni said her client had “surprisingly” been otherwise compliant with a community corrections order imposed on him in May, having just begun counselling, enrolled into a men’s behaviour change program and completed 32 of 100 hours of community work. “He is on that road to get the help he needs so he doesn’t have to come back to court,” she said. Magistrate Megan Casey bailed the Wangaratta man and adjourned the matter for deferred sentence on 26 November, releasing the man to comply with his court orders.
