Roma man jailed for five months after series of drug-raged attacks on child’s mother

‘I feared I was going to die and my girls would grow up not knowing their mother.’ A woman reveals her anguish after being brutalised by her partner, who threw her to the ground, bit her lip and twisted her neck so severely she thought it was going to snap.

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A Roma man who held a knife to his girlfriend’s neck during a meth-fuelled attack following cheating accusations has been jailed for five months.

The Roma Magistrates Court heard the man, who cannot be named to protect the victim, breached a domestic violence order in the first 10 days of it being issued through a series of brutal assaults.

The court heard the violence was linked to accusations he was having an affair with another woman.

The court heard the other woman is due to front court on multiple charges of supplying dangerous drugs.

Police prosecutor Barry Stevens said officers arrived at the couple’s home on May 20 and observed a 3-4 centimetre cut on the victim’s head, which she said she suffered when she was punched by the 27-year-old man.

“A separate occasion occurred, when the children were asleep, the pair argued over his drug use and relationship with another woman,” he said.

“He held her down with his legs and used his phone to hit her on the head several times, which caused swelling.

“On June 24, the victim tried to move out of the house and he arrived home and called her a ‘slut’ and ‘whore’ and grabbed her by the hair and threw her on the ground.

“She fell and obtained a large scratch on her ribs, he then grabbed her and twisted her neck and she said it felt like her neck was going to snap, he then bit her on the lip and damaged the television.”

In a separate incident, the woman told police she thought she was going to die after the man held a 25 cm knife to her neck and threatened to slice her throat.

The man listened from the dock as Sergeant Stevens explained how the couple’s child witnessed the man hit and punch the woman several times, before pleading for forgiveness.

A victim impact statement tendered to Magistrate Peter Saggers detailed the physical, mental and social damage suffered by his victim.

“I feared I was going to die and my girls would grow up not knowing their mother,” the statement read.

Sergeant Stevens submitted the man, who has a history of domestic violence, be sentenced to 18 months to two years in jail.

Solicitor Leslee Reed said her client recently found work after being unemployed for seven months.

“He acknowledges he had a bad meth habit and is wanting assistance,” Ms Reed said.

“He suffers from depression and spent nearly four days in custody and instructed that his time in the watch-house was the worst he’s ever experienced.”

His Honour labelled the man’s actions “very serious and violent” and said he was left with no option but to order jail time.

The man pleaded guilty to 12 charges including drug driving, contravening a domestic violence order, assault occasioning bodily harm, common assault and breaching a protection order.

With his head held down and a family member in the back of the courtroom, the man told the magistrate he wanted to turn his life around.

He was sentenced to five months’ jail and will be released on parole on December 18.

The man was also fined $500 and disqualified from driving for six months.