By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A 47-YEAR-OLD Cranbourne man defied bail conditions and an intervention order by hacking down a bedroom door with a tomahawk axe during a frightening attack on his separated wife, a court has heard.
In a victim impact statement read to Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Monday 11 April, the man’s wife of 29 years stated he seemed to “lose all control” at the home on 7 April.
“It doesn’t give him the right to terrify me physically and mentally.”
During his rage, the man started yelling and striking a computer screen with a sharpening stone.
His wife then barricaded herself in the bedroom. The man bashed the door off its hinges using a tomahawk, pushed his wife on the bed and dragged her to the ground by her hair.
The victim stated she was scared the man would harm her with the tomahawk and begged for him to stop.
After grabbing a phone from his wife’s bag, the husband implored her to “get off the ground you stupid fat c***”.
She stated that her husband had “never been this person” until a chronically painful back injury sustained at work in 2012.
This once generous and loving man had descended into depression due to the stress, she wrote.
Magistrate Julie O’Donnell was concerned that the man had gone “straight back” to the house despite being released on bail – on condition of not going to the home – by a court on 31 March.
He had been bailed at the time over charges of assaulting his wife and breaching an intervention order.
Last year, the man was put on a good behaviour bond without conviction over a family violence incident.
At Monday’s hearing, Ms O’Donnell took into account the man’s lack of convictions as well as noting the two recent “significant” family violence incidents.
She sentenced the man to a 12-month community corrections order, including treatment for his cannabis and ice use, mental health issues and attending offender-behaviour programs.
The order would not include community work due to “possible complications” with the man’s WorkCover claim.
He was also jailed for five days – which had already been served in custody since the tomahawk attack.
The court was told the man would immediately move address to Jamieson in northern Victoria.
