Taylor Dew faces Toowoomba Magistrates Court for stalking ex-partner

A Toowoomba man failed to understand the meaning of the words ‘do not contact me’ after he was charged with bombarding his ex-partner with 150 phone calls, leaving 56 voicemails and sending 58 emails from 14 different email addresses.

For about a month and a half Taylor Dew made his ex-partner’s life hell by sending hundreds of messages, emails and voicemails, demanding that she speak to him and stalking her home and workplace when she refused.

The 32-year-old appeared in Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Friday via videolink from the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre were has been held on remand since his arrest 51 days ago.

He was charged with one count of unlawful stalking, nine counts of breaching bail and multiple breaches of a domestic violence order.

Police prosecutor Anita Page told the court Dew and his partner’s relationship ended some time ago and she made it clear that she did not want to speak to him.

However the court was told that despite her instructions, Dew made repeated attempts to contact her between August 1 and September 13, 2023.

They included making 150 phone calls, leaving 56 voicemails and sending 58 emails from 14 different email addresses.

The court was told he also made several fake social media accounts in an attempt to contact his former partner.

He called the woman from payphones after she blocked his number, then called her mother and asked that she pass on messages.

On one occasion he was caught lurking a park gazebo a short distance from the woman’s house after scrawling a message in chalk on the pavement.

On another occasion he was caught lying on the lawn outside her house.

Dew was arrested twice in this time and on the last occasion he went to the woman’s workplace immediately after his release from the Toowoomba watch-house.

“There is a persistence in his behaviour,” Ms Page said.

The court was told that Dew’s actions left the woman in a state of emotional distress because she no longer felt safe in her home and required an escort to her car after leaving work each day.

Defence solicitor Brad Skuse told the court his client had moved now on and was with another woman who was two months pregnant with his child.

Dew pleaded guilty to all offences and was handed a six month jail term that was wholly suspended for 12 months.

He was also placed on a 14-month probation order.

Importantly, Acting Magistrate Sudha Ganasan declined to recognise the 50 days Dew spent in pre-sentence custody.

“The persistence and the sheer stupidity of not accepting no needs to be addressed,” she said.

“You have been before the courts for this behaviour, and you find yourself in custody, just because you don’t understand what it means when someone says ‘do not contact me’.”

Originally published as Taylor Dew faces Toowoomba Magistrates Court for stalking ex-partner