Joshua John Plozza jailed over stalking, sending woman ‘vile’ messages

A woman who was stalked by a Geelong businessman has told a court of the traumatic impact his actions had on her life, as a magistrate denounced the “revolting” messages he sent.

JP's Drive Thru owner Joshua Plozza appeared in Geelong court on Wednesday.

A Geelong takeaway store owner who tormented a woman for years with “abusive, degrading and sexually explicit messages” has been jailed.

Joshua John Plozza, 32, appeared in Geelong Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday via videolink for sentence, having earlier pleaded guilty to stalking.

Plozza sent reams of “degrading and derogatory” messages to a woman for years, largely between November 2020 and August 2022.

He used various phones, emails and accounts on Instagram and WhatsApp to send the messages, and sometimes even while overseas or using other people’s phones.

Magistrate Ann McGarvie lambasted the messages as “absolutely revolting, degrading and abusive” as she jailed Plozza for two months.

Ms McGarvie said Plozza’s conduct clearly had a “massive traumatic effect” on the victim.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable James French read out a statement provided by the victim, in which she described feeling suicidal as a result of Plozza’s actions.

“I wondered whether I should be alive, and felt a deep sense of shame,” the woman wrote.

She described feeling fearful that wherever she was in the world, Plozza would find a way to make contact.

Her social life was impacted, she was unable to sleep and she lost weight, the court heard.

The woman had begun the process to “rebuild” her self-worth, but the court heard she was not sure if she will “ever return to the person (she) was before”.

An assessment by Corrections Victoria found Plozza was unsuitable for a community corrections order (CCO).

The court heard Plozza “displayed little insight into his offending” and said there were “two sides to a story” during the assessment.

“There may well be two sides to a relationship, but these emails to the complainant were vile and degrading,” Ms McGarvie said.

Plozza was placed on a CCO in 2019 for stalking a different woman. He was still on the order when the current offending began.

The court heard Plozza had a ketamine and cocaine problem at the time.

Plozza’s lawyer, Simon Northeast, implored Ms McGarvie not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and still consider a CCO.

“If we refused CCOs for repeat offenders, there’d be very few corrections orders,” he said, noting it was Plozza’s first time in custody.

Mr Northeast said he believed Plozza was redeemable and argued a CCO would provide a more conducive environment for Plozza to address his behaviours than prison.

Constable French said, given the impact on the victim and the similarities between this offending and his criminal history, more prison time was on the table.

Plozza has taken “no ownership” of his offending, Constable French said, and was even “very dismissive of it”.

Magistrate Ann McGarvie convicted Plozza and sentenced him to two months behind bars, minus 20 days of pre-sentence detention, to be followed by an 18-month CCO.

Originally published as Joshua John Plozza jailed over stalking, sending woman ‘vile’ messages