Warwick court: Mum-of-five breaches protection notice within minutes of being released from watch house

The court heard it took the mother-of-five only minutes to breach the protection notice taken out against her after a heated altercation with her partner.

IN COURT: The Warwick mother-of-five pleaded guilty to breaching a police protection notice over desperate apology texts to her partner after a fight. Picture: file

A Warwick mother has fronted court after breaching a police protection notice only minutes after she was released from the watch house in a desperate effort to apologise to her partner for their original fight.

Police were called to intervene in a heated altercation between the 41-year-old, who cannot be named, and her partner late at night on August 11.

Warwick Magistrates Court heard the woman was taken to the watch house and released just after midnight the next morning, at which point she was served with a “cool down” police protection notice that prohibited her from contacting her partner for the next 24 hours.

Police prosecutor Steve de Lissa said it took only minutes for the woman to begin sending a series of text messages to her partner.

Sergeant de Lissa said the messages weren’t “of any concerning nature”, but the communication breached the protection notice regardless.

“She told police she thought she was sending them to a friend, but knew she shouldn’t be,” he said.

The Warwick woman appeared in court with no criminal history.

Defence lawyer Craig Van Der Hoven said his client was extremely emotional upon her release and didn’t take the time to completely understand the conditions of the protection notice, for which she took full responsibility.

“Ultimately this is a breach of the domestic violence order, but in my submission doesn’t amount to actual domestic violence,” he said.

“The texts were essentially her apologising for the fact they’d ended up in this situation and also involved her talking to her son, so there’s no aggressive or abusive nature to those messages.”

Mr Van Der Hoven added that the woman was yet to return to the family home with her partner and five young children.

The Warwick woman pleaded guilty to one count of contravening a police protection notice.

She was placed on a good behaviour bond for six months and no conviction was recorded.