A Narre Warren South man, Bilal Sidani, was sentenced to a total of three-and-a-half years in prison, with a two-year and three-month non-parole period, after a hearing in the County Court on Monday, 2 June.
Sidani was hit with three charges: the persistent contravention of a family violence intervention, arson, and extortion with threat to inflict injury.
Concerning the first charge, Sidani allegedly breached it by attempting to contact numerous protected people multiple times in November-December 2023 despite an intervention order issued by Dandenong Magistrates’ Court.
An explanation of the order was provided after it was issued on 13 November, but on the same day, Sidani allegedly sent three TikTok messages and one iMessage to one of the protected people.
This pattern would continue until 30 November; throughout this period, 37 attempts to contact a protected person were made, including attempted calls and Sidani allegedly installing a SimTracker application called Phone Tracker to track the protected person.
Between 3 December and 7 December, Sidani attempted to contact the protected person 73 times, via iMessage, calls, sharing his location, TikTok, and Snapchat, according to prosecutors.
On 30 November, Sidani was also charged with arson after destroying a 2010 Ford Falcon utility by fire.
Then on 5 December, he was also charged with extortion with a threat to inflict injury after he made a demand from the victim to pay $7000.
According to a prosecution summary, Sidani also held a previous criminal record and served a term of imprisonment for threatening to damage property, inflict serious injury and kill, and persistently breaching a family violence intervention order.
He was also previously convicted of using a carriage service to harass and contravening a family violence intervention order, intending to cause fear or harm.
Furthermore, his criminal history is filled with breaches of court orders and conduct that is related to the threat or actual damage of property.
This also includes threat or endangerment of injury, and two instances of assault.
Prosecutors stated that “his current offending represents a marked escalation of his prior criminal record”.
