Former police officer Clinton Cheesman pleads guilty to stalking, harassment

A former police sergeant stalked a woman for months, barraging her with hundreds of “disgusting” messages and harassing her mother, friend and partner.

Clinton Cheesman leaving Geelong Magistrates Court on Friday.

A former Victoria police officer stalked and bombarded a woman with abusive messages, while also sending harassing and intimidating messages to her partner, mother and close friend.

Clinton Cheesman, 49, fronted Geelong Magistrates Court on Friday, and pleaded guilty to charges including stalking and three counts of using a carriage service to harass.

Cheesman was a sergeant with Victoria Police until he left the force in mid-2023.

The court heard Cheesman stalked his victim for months between January and May 2023, sending her abusive, offensive and threatening text messages laden with profanity, insults and misogynistic language.

In the messages, Cheesman described his hatred of the woman, said he hoped she would die, denigrated her ability as a mother and threatened to ruin her career.

Over two days in May 2023, Cheesman sent the woman 431 text messages, the court heard.

During the stalking, he also sent concerning voicemails involving family members of the victim, “loitered” near her address and on one occasion, threatened to smash her door in.

Cheesman also texted the woman’s mother, telling her, among other things, that he wanted her daughter to “lose everything” and for something terrible to happen to her at work.

Cheesman also threatened to physically harm the victim’s partner on numerous occasions and even contacted the man via Facebook.

A close friend of the victim also received messages and was so concerned she arranged for the victim’s locks to be changed and CCTV cameras to be installed.

In a victim impact statement, read aloud by prosecutor Madeleine Sargent, the victim said she had suffered “relentless abuse, intimidation and torment” at the hands of Cheesman, who “treated it as a sport”.

She said she found herself checking over her shoulder and concerned about her family amid Cheesman’s “malicious lies”.

“He attacked every aspect of my life,” the victim wrote. .

In her own impact statement, the victim’s mother said the crimes had permeated every aspect of her life.

Representing himself, Cheesman said the offending occurred when things were “pretty toxic”.

“The prosecution would make you believe this was a one-way street. It wasn’t,” he told magistrate Kimberly Swadesir.

Cheesman, who was now working in a factory, apologised and said the messages were sent at a time things were “raw” and he was highly emotional.

“When those text messages were read back to me, I am sorry … I am ashamed and disgusted by what I said,” he told the court.

“It wasn’t appropriate the way I behaved.”

Ms Sargent said his emotional state was no excuse.

“There’s always context to offending … but that doesn’t excuse this conduct,” she said.

Ms Swadesir described the offending during the hearing as a “reign of terror” and said she was concerned at the length of time it covered.

She said the messages he sent were disgusting and “comments that no single person needs to hear once, let alone hundreds of times”.

She said while the offending was too serious for a fine, she said she would not jail Cheesman.

Cheesman was convicted, fined $3000 and placed on a 12-month community corrections order.

Originally published as Former police officer Clinton Cheesman pleads guilty to stalking, harassment