Wendy Janette Sutton pleaded guilty to stalking a former colleague and drug trafficking
A stalker who called a former workmate a ‘murderer’ in some of 1000 threatening messages, then tracked down her home address and attempted suicide at the property.
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A Christies Downs woman, who sent more than 1000 threatening text messages to a former colleague calling her a ‘murderer’, also tracked down her victim’s home address and attempted suicide at the property, a court has heard.
The founding member of an anti-poverty network was being investigated for stalking when police uncovered she was also trafficking cannabis.
Wendy Janette Sutton, 60, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, stalking and seven counts of beached bail in the Christies Beach Magistrate Court on Monday.
The court heard Sutton was in charge of liaising with other network groups in 2020 to obtain grant money for a project when she received a grant of $2000 for the network group.
However, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Sutton allegedly misused the funds.
Sutton was asked to repay the funds but refused as she was not comfortable providing her bank account details and was stood down.
The court heard the fallout from her anti-poverty network sent Sutton in a ‘spiral’ blaming her colleagues for her life falling apart and led her to believing she was a victim of harassment and the group were trying to ruin her life.
“This led to you attempting suicide by taking yourself to the complainants home in December 2020.” Magistrate Teresa Anderson said.
Sutton was issued with a stalking caution in March 2021 but proceeded to ignore it, sending former colleague more than 1000 threatening text messages and calling more than 500 time.
“You were accusing her of trying to kill you and brainwashing your daughter with lies,” Magistrate Teresa Anderson said.
“In some of them you said ‘expect a visit from me.”
Sutton attended the victim’s workplace and distributed flyers with the words “you are all murderers” written across them on May 7.
When police were looking through Sutton’s phone in relation to the stalking charges on May 22, they discovered she had been selling cannabis through a private Facebook group.
Police attended Sutton’s Christies Downs residence where they found 49 zip-lock bags weighing 700g all containing cannabis.
Between June 18 and 23, Sutton sent more than 200 text messages which included: ‘Why can’t you answer your phone you f***ing r****d’ and “you are a murderer”.
The stress of Sutton’s messages led the victim to suffer a stroke and move to a gated community, the court heard.
On October 10, the victim found paperwork on her front porch of her new home with writing saying “I warned you, I will find you” and “got you”.
In her sentencing remarks Magistrate Anderson told Sutton her perception was distorted.
“The focus of your thinking is how you are feeling rather than how the victim must have felt and your perception is distorted,” Magistrate Anderson said.
Sutton was sentenced to nine months and four days imprisonment for the drug trafficking charge plus six months and four days for the stalking and breaches of bail.
Both sentences were suspended on a good behaviour bond of two years for a sum of $500.
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