Joshua Mark Denne pleads guilty to unrelated DVO breach, amid Veronica Wellings’ suspicious death investigation

The partner of a mother-of-three who died under suspicious circumstances told his court guard ‘I’m grieving too’, before he was released on bail.

Joshua Mark Denne appeared in Darwin Local Court on Monday February 24 to plead guilty to a single charge of engaging in conduct that contravenes a domestic violence order. Picture: Zizi Averill

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name and image of Indigenous people who have passed, used with permission from her family.

A former Darwin soldier whose partner died under suspicious circumstances — but who has not been charged over her death — has been released on bail after pleading guilty to breaching a domestic violence order.

Joshua Mark Denne appeared in Darwin Local Court on Monday to plead guilty to a single charge of engaging in conduct that contravenes a domestic violence order after yelling out at a protected person last week.

His court appearance comes days after his partner, mother-of-three and beloved musician Veronica Wellings was raced to Royal Darwin Hospital in a critical condition.

NT Police have alleged that Mr Denne called triple-0 to report that his partner was ‘seriously ill’ while at his Humpty Doo home, in violation of an active domestic violence restraining order.

The 39-year-old woman passed away in hospital that day.

Veronica Wellings was 39-years-old.

While police treated Ms Wellings’ death as a “suspicious” suspected domestic violence incident, Mr Denne has not been charged with killing her.

An autopsy failed to identify a clear cause of death, and Mr Denne was released from police custody on Wednesday.

He was charged with breaching his bail and a domestic violence order.

The NT News can reveal that Mr Denne had been charged with four counts of aggravated assault, choking, making threats to kill and using a carriage service to harass, and had a full non-contact order issued against him to protect Ms Wellings late last year.

In a Darwin Local Court hearing in November, Judge Stephen Geary was told there were serious concerns for Ms Wellings’ safety if he were to be released on bail.

Veronica Wellings

“We have concerns if this defendant should be granted bail that her safety will not be guaranteed,” Prosecutor Ruby Preece said.

Mr Geary said there were allegedly admissions from Mr Denne to sending threatening messages and calls, while Ms Preece said there were also medical documents, voicemail recordings, and witness statements corroborating the crown’s case.

But defence lawyer Jackson Meaney said his client risked losing his job with the Commonwealth agency ComCare — the national work health and safety authority — if he remained on remand given the “lengthy delays due to the backlog at the moment”.

Mr Meaney told the court that Mr Denne spent six years with the Australian Defence Force in the transport corps, before he was medically discharged.

While he acknowledged they were “serious allegations”, Mr Geary was told the risks could be moderated by a supervised bail plan, including a non-contact order and wearing an electronic monitoring device.

In a warning directly to Mr Denne, Mr Geary stated: “If you go anywhere near Ms Wellings, anywhere near her, that will come up on the EMD and that will be the end of bail”.

“If you breach any of these conditions there will be no more bail. Do you understand?”

“Totally,” Mr Denne replied

Last week police granted Mr Denne bail, after charging him with breaching his bail and a domestic violence order following the investigation into Ms Wellings’ death.

Veronica Wellings

Days later Mr Denne was arrested again after breaching a different, unrelated domestic violence order.

On Monday the 39-year-old pleaded guilty to the single charge, admitting to yelling out at a protected person from the other side of the road and gesturing for him to come over.

Judge Giles O’Brien-Hartcher said Mr Denne had spent four days in custody over the “low level” breach, and sentenced him to time served.

This is despite prosecutor Kylie Smith flagging an “ongoing concern” about Mr Denne’s actions, given “the accumulation of multiple files in a relatively short period of time”.

Joshua Mark Denne appeared in Darwin Local Court on Monday February 24 to plead guilty to a single charge of engaging in conduct that contravenes a domestic violence order.

Mr O’Brien-Hartcher said while this was a “fair” concern, he still approved bail on the same terms and conditions.

“While I accept he has committed an offence in the meantime, apart from that not much has really changed,” he said.

At no point in the 10 minute hearing was the recent ‘suspicious death’ of his partner explicitly mentioned by either prosecutors or defence.

The only person to mention the recent passing of the mother-of-three was Mr Denne himself, who muttered to his Corrections officer: “I’m grieving as well”.

Veronica Wellings.

Ms Smith said police were still “undertaking some further investigations around some other allegations”, but said at this stage there were no new charges.

Mr O’Brien-Hartcher said he could not have regard to charges that had not been laid.

After his bail was granted, Mr Denne told the judge: “Honestly sir, once this is all gone I want to vacate this state and never come back — even though I’m the only one from here.”

Mr Denne’s matters will return to Darwin Local Court on March 7 and June 6.

Originally published as Joshua Mark Denne pleads guilty to unrelated DVO breach, amid Veronica Wellings’ suspicious death investigation