Hamlyn Heights man Ben Armstrong threatened to kill neighbour

A Hamlyn Heights man ran after his neighbour with a knife and threatened to kill him.

Ben Armstrong threatened to kill his neighbour while chasing him down with a knife. Picture: Polka Dot Wedding.

A jealous Hamlyn Heights man chased his neighbour with a knife while their children played together.

While his two children were inside his neighbour’s house, Ben Armstrong asked the victim to have a beer with him but quickly confronted him about allegations the man was talking to his ex-wife.

After a brief scuffle, that is not the subject of the current charges, Armstrong threatened to kill the man.

The victim left but Armstrong chased him with a kitchen knife, yelling that he was going to “f---ing kill you”.

In a text message sent to the neighbour shortly after the incident about their children, Armstrong told him he would “end you” if the other man told his ex-wife about the incident.

Armstrong pleaded guilty to making the threat to kill in the Geelong Magistrates Court in October 2022.

He was placed on an adjourned undertaking after promising the court he would complete an anger management program.

Armstrong returned to court on Thursday for failing to complete the program within 12 months because “he forgot” and was resentenced.

Magistrate Simon Guthrie told him a threat to kill charge carried a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment.

“Five years maximum and all you had to do was an anger management course. That’s all you had to do,” Mr Guthrie told him.

“You get given an opportunity to do something for 12 months, to educate you effectively. You say your life is better, it’s in a better place now … but that’s all you had to do.”

Mr Guthrie placed Armstrong back on an adjourned undertaking to give him the “benefit of the doubt”.

Armstrong has until September this year to complete the program and has been ordered to provide the court with evidence of that.

“We will deal with it on that date,” Mr Guthrie said.

Originally published as Hamlyn Heights man Ben Armstrong threatened to kill neighbour