Jack Lachlan Lennis: Magistrates grills ‘disgusting’ domestic violence offender

A magistrate has said she would jail this domestic violence offender for the rest of his natural life if she could. Read what happened here.

Magistrate Pamela Dowse made the scathing remarks as Jake Lachlan Lennis appeared from prison via videolink at the Southport Magistrates Court on Friday. Pic Peter Wallis

A Gold Coast magistrate who said she would lock up a “disgusting” domestic violence offender for the rest of his life if she could, told court he “shouldn’t be breathing our air”.

Magistrate Pamela Dowse made the scathing remarks as Jake Lachlan Lennis, 27, appeared from prison via videolink at the Southport Magistrates Court on Friday following his sentence in the District Court earlier this year.

The Surfers Paradise man was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in April for a slew of horrific domestic violence charges after he detained a 22-year-old woman in her bedroom, hogtied her with bedsheets, assaulted her and degraded her over an 18-hour period on July 7, 2020.

Three of the charges before the Magistrates Court related to the incident detailed in the Southport District Court case.

Lennis, who is parole eligible from July 9, 2025, pleaded guilty to all nine charges at the Magistrates Court including to recording the genitals of a woman without her consent, stealing her dog and damaging a mobile phone between July 6-9 2020 at Surfers Paradise.

Lennis appeared in the Southport Magistrates Court over a month on from his District Court sentence. Picture: NewsWire / Richard Gosling

He also pleaded guilty to two counts of contravening a domestic violence order and four counts of failing to appear in accordance with undertaking.

Magistrate Dowse said Lennis was someone likely to be spending the rest of his life in jail and she didn’t know what else she could do “without causing a whole forest to be destroyed”.

“He shouldn’t be breathing our air really. He’s just disgusting.”

In court, police prosecutor Rhiannon Dhillon noted some of the offences dated back to 2015 and this sentencing was the finalisation of all matters.

Lennis’ defence counsel Paddy Kilmurray told the court his client was imprisoned in NSW when the failure to appear offences occurred and said any additional time in custody would be crushing considering the amount of time Lennis had spent in prison.

“He’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison the way he lives his life,” Magistrate Dowse said. “Disgusting! For everyone else to be safe that’s where he needs to be. For a young man?”

Mr Kilmurray said Lennis had done a considerable amount of work to acknowledge his past and came from a complex set of circumstances.

He said he picked up Ms Dowse’s points but any further time to Lennis’ sentence would be crushing.

“And so they should be. He’s got a crushing personality,” Ms Dowse said.

Magistrate Pamela Dowse said if she could give Lennis the rest of his natural life in prison she would. Pic Peter Wallis

Ms Dowse said the older matters made it difficult to impose a sentence that wouldn’t affect Lennis’ parole.

She said she could order a suspend sentence but said it wasn’t going to make any difference.

“If I could give him the rest of his natural life in prison I would do it because he doesn’t get it,” she said. “How can he treat people and people’s animals and property the way he does and it’s no excuse that he was treated poorly himself. That’s just too weak.”

Lennis was convicted but not further punished for the offences. A conviction was recorded.

Originally published as Jack Lachlan Lennis: Magistrates grills ‘disgusting’ domestic violence offender