By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A MAN kicked in a back door of a Doveton house to falsely tell a mother in bed with her daughter that there was a bomb under the house.
The 43 year-old Pearcedale father of four, who had no prior convictions, pleaded guilty to wilful damage and unlawful entry on a property in Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
After allegedly entering the house about 8.16am on 6 February, the man tapped the mother on the head.
He allegedly told her he was a previous tenant and there was a bomb under the house.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Amber-Lea Brown told the court the pair then talked in the backyard away from the children.
She said the victim was not threatened by the accused, who fled the premises and was later taken by police to Dandenong Hospital for a mental health assessment.
Police were not opposed to a good-behaviour bond against the accused – given his issues, she said.
The man told magistrate Jack Vandersteen he was “severely dehydrated” at the time of the incident.
He said he had been roaming Doveton streets “homeless” for several hot days in the lead-up and that his marriage and business had recently ended.
He told the court that he was receiving psychiatric treatment since the incident.
Mr Vandersteen said the man was “acutely unwell” at the time.
“It would have been very scary for the victim and her children to be confronted in (her) home.”
He ordered the man to undergo a 12-month good behaviour bond, on the condition the man continued his psychiatric counselling regime, and to pay for the $1266 damage to the victim’s back door.
