34-year-old father pleads guilty in Chinchilla Magistrates Court to contravening domestic violence order

A Chinchilla father has claimed he breached his domestic violence order with abusive texts due to concern over the health of his two-year-old child. Here’s what happened in court.

A father told Chinchilla Magistrates Court the reason he sent abusive texts that contravened his domestic violence order because he was concerned about the health of his child.

The 34-year-old man pleaded guilty to contravening the order against his ex-partner after he sent her a slew of aggressive text messages in October 2022.

Police prosecutor Chris Hutchins said police attended the complainant’s address for a statement, where she told officers she had been abused by her ex-partner via texts and phone calls that evening.

The complainant said her son woke up that morning with a temperature and a stuffy nose, but thought it might have been because he was teething.

Despite the aggrieved texting the defendant and letting him know of their son’s condition, the defendant responded back to the text messages which is a violation of the existing DV order against him.

Mr Hutchins read a handful of the abusive text messages in court that the aggrieved received throughout the day from about 11am to 5pm.

The complainant had dropped the toddler off at a relative of the defendant’s house in the early afternoon and this is when the defendant picked up his son.

The defendant in court claimed the toddler was “fading in and out of consciousness” and had a temperature “well above 40 degrees”.

The defendant said he took him to the hospital for a check up as soon as he finished work.

“It was in the context of this event that my client instructed that he lost his temper and that led to the conduct in which he was charged,” the defendant’s lawyer said.

The lawyer described the defendant as a “very industrious” man with a “good character”.

After the son was put into the defendant’s care, he rang the complainant and began an abusive tirade over the phone which was taped.

“Ultimately, I think he’s forgetting it’s his child and they both have that responsibility,” Mr Hutchins said.

“Yes it’s frustrating and he’s entitled to be frustrated, but you can’t act that way when there’s a domestic violence order.”

Magistrate Kyna Morice said it seemed this was an isolated incident “born out of frustration about the care of your child”.

She handed the defendant a $300 fine and didn’t record his conviction.