By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A MAN jailed for stalking his ex-partner has claimed he is the victim after being charged for contacting the ex-partner again while he was on parole.
The man pleaded guilty to persistently breaching an intervention order as well as his parole conditions at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Monday 5 October.
He had spent the previous 44 days in custody after being arrested by Cardinia Family Violence Unit for sending 66 text messages to the victim in April to August.
His ex-partner had been protected by a full intervention order banning all contact from the accused for several years, the court was told.
Police prosecutor Constable Troy Johnson told the court the accused had texted that her that he was two months away from the end of his parole term.
The man told her he wanted to see his children “without the courts being involved”.
The messages “started getting nasty” in July as the man blamed the ex-partner and called her a “loser” and a “coward”, Const Johnson said.
“The (affected family member) hasn’t responded to any of these messages,” Const Johnson said.
During the stalking, the victim feared the accused would visit her and she became afraid each time a car passed her house, the court was told.
After his arrest, the accused told police he was texting the victim over “parenting” issues.
He told police he was “appealing for an amicable relationship” between the parties, the court was told.
“To some degree, I’m the victim here,” he reportedly told police.
Defence lawyer Jonathan Miller said his client “stupidly thought this type of contact would be OK”.
Mr Miller said the accused had followed proper family-law channels to access his children, who he hadn’t seen for five years.
The accused didn’t want to “drag his children through the courts” after mediation with the ex-partner failed.
Mr Miller said the accused had no alcohol, drug and mental health issues.
Magistrate Julie O’Donnell noted family-violence offences against the victim dated back to 2011.
Some of these breaches occurred during a community corrections order and a suspended jail term in 2012 and 2013, the court was told.
In 2013, the man had been sentenced to 18 months’ jail, with a six-month non-parole period, for four counts of stalking the ex-partner.
“If he’s not complying with the parole order with all the consequences that follow, why would I believe that he would follow a community corrections order (now)?” Ms O’Donnell said.
“It concerns me greatly with him breaching parole with further stalking.”
Ms O’Donnell adjourned sentencing until a copy of the text messages were provided to the court on 16 October.
