Roma man pleads guilty in Roma Magistrates Court after a witness was assaulted during a domestic dispute

A father of two has faced court after an argument in a park ended in a witness being punched after coming to his aid. Here’s what happened.

A Roma man with no history of domestic violence became embroiled in a domestic dispute incident, that saw his partner punch a witness who had come to his aid.

The man pleaded guilty in Roma Magistrates Court to contravening a domestic violence order, breaching a bail order, and twice breaching release conditions.

The domestic dispute between the defendant and his partner took place at a Roma park on October 18 as they argued with each other, the court was told.

“A witness saw her get off a swing and punch you and you told her to get off,” magistrate Shane Elliott said.

“You’ve asked the witness to help get the aggrieved off you and they did; however, they were told by the aggrieved to ‘f — k off’ and the aggrieved punched them in the face.

“Police have been looking for her since then.”

The defendant, who is aged in his 20s, came before the court with a long list of charges, with the rest of them expected to be heard in the next Roma District Court sitting.

The four charges heard at the Roma Magistrates Court last month happened within the span of two months in October and September this year.

Mr Elliott said the case was unusual considering the defendant also had his own protection order against his partner.

“I note there is a cross-order and no other DV (on your history),” Mr Elliott said.

“It’s a case of one is as bad as the other.

“The problem is they’ve taken a domestic situation and then they’ve assaulted a member of the public. That’s particularly serious.”

“While there are some serious aspects to your offending, it’s somewhat unique in my view.

“But that doesn’t provide you an excuse to go to her address and manhandle her as well, because it's a type of behaviour that needs to be stopped.

“People like you, people like her and many others need to change the way they think about conflict and how they deal with the other party.

“There’s no excuse for threatening, intimidating, harassing or any form of violence.

Mr Elliott told the father of two that he needed to change the way he dealt with conflict if he wanted his children to not end up as a defendant in the criminal court.

“What we know now is that many people, who as children were subjected or exposed to domestic violence, end up as defendants in the criminal courts,” Mr Elliott said.

“What happens to kids is DV becomes normalised and part of their everyday interactions.

“It starts with you.”

The magistrate handed the defendant an 18 month probation order with a special condition that he must complete a DV perpetrators program, and a conviction was recorded.