‘Going to burn the house down with you in it’: Domestic violence offender’s threat to his partner

After smashing a glass door at their home, a man threatened to ‘burn the house down’ with his partner inside. Here’s what happened.

A man holding a cigarette lighter. Generic image.

A Central Queensland man threatened his partner by saying “I’m going to burn the house down with you in it,” a court has heard.

The 30-year-old, who by law cannot be named, pleaded guilty in Biloela Magistrates Court on May 11 to contravening a domestic violence order.

Police Prosecutor Sergeant Kevin Ongheen said the man and the aggrieved woman were in an intimate relationship.

Sgt Ongheen said on April 10 about 4am, the man and woman returned to their Biloela residence after drinking at another location.

The prosecutor said the man went outside and the woman put children into bed.

“The (man) has attempted to call the (woman),” Sgt Ongheen said.

“The (woman) did not answer (her phone) and the (man) has left three voice messages.

“The messages consisted of the (man) accusing the (woman) of being unfaithful and stating that she is a f---ing cow and a stupid c---.”

Sgt Ongheen said the woman went outside to have a cigarette and speak to the man about the voice messages.

He said the woman asked the man to leave because she did not wish to be verbally abused.

“The (man) then stated ‘I’m not f---ing going anywhere’.”

Sgt Ongheen said the woman went back inside the house, locked a glass sliding door, and went to bed.

“Whilst in bed, the (woman) has heard a loud bang.

“She has gone out to the living room and saw the glass sliding door had been smashed.”

Sgt Ongheen said the woman told the man she was “going to call the cops” and he replied “I’m going to burn the house down with you in it”.

“The (man) stated something about putting broken glass into her (the woman’s) skull,” Sgt Ongheen said.

Police arrived shortly after and spoke to the man about the incident.

“In his own words, he admitted to breaking the glass by stating: ‘I placed my foot on the glass and applied pressure which resulted in the damage to the glass door’.”

Sgt Ongheen said the man was subsequently arrested, taken to Biloela police station, and charged.

The court heard the man had no offending of this sort on his history.

Solicitor Richard Parks said the man was living with the aggrieved woman but he had since moved out.

“He’s very remorseful for what has happened,” Mr Parks said.

“He realises he shouldn’t have said those things in those voice messages on the phone.”

Mr Parks said his client instructed that he didn’t say “‘I’ll burn the house down”.

“He said to her, when she said I’ll call the police: ‘What have you told them this time, I’m going to burn the house down?’

“And she can’t remember, she made some allegation about a glass in the head. There was no glass on the floor, there was no glass anywhere.”

Despite that submission, Mr Parks said his client accepted the prosecution facts.

Mr Parks said both the man and woman had consumed alcohol on the night of the incident, and arguments between the pair were frequent when they lived together.

Magistrate Philippa Beckinsale fined the man $600 and she did not record a conviction.

Queensland Police Service. Generic image.

Meanwhile, Central Queensland police on Tuesday revealed they were targeting high-risk domestic violence offenders through the use of new technology.

“Capricornia police are proactively targeting the region’s domestic and family violence offenders using a new tool aimed at identifying individuals at highest risk of committing repeat offences,” a police statement said.

“During Operation Disley and Operation Arena, which ran throughout March, police targeted high-risk offenders utilising the new ‘high-risk high-harm dashboard’ to apply a scale to harmful behaviours that are known to increase the likelihood and severity of violent offending, including strangulation and threatening behaviour.”

Police said that Gracemere’s Operation Disley identified 18 high risk offenders, and Operation Arena identified and targeted 20 people throughout the Rockhampton area.

Acting Inspector Shaune English said as a result of early police intervention with these high-risk individuals, 94 per cent did not reoffend during the following month.

“Our front-line police are frequently responding to these incidents at a crisis point so the ability for our police to identify and connect with these people outside of those moments of escalation is very important,” Acting Inspector English said.

“This dashboard reviews and rates known risk factors, including past offending behaviours and other elements that are likely to lead to an escalation of offending behaviour.

“This allows our specialist police who are trained to identify those risk factors and start a conversation with known offenders to provide support and connect with local services before they reach a point of crisis in their relationship.

“By having our officers assess behaviour and intervene before more offences are committed, we hope to be able to interrupt the pattern of abuse and halt the escalation in its tracks.

“Having this tool at our fingertips is proving a valuable component of our commitment to prevent domestic and family violence from occurring in the first place.”