Ricky Blackney jailed over assaulting, endangering woman in two-day rampage

He strangled a woman, slammed her head into a car, drove a car at her, threatened her with a hammer and a fake gun in a terrifying two-day reign-of-terror. Now a judge has sent him back to jail.

Ricky Blackney appeared in the County Court at Geelong on September 10, 2024. Picture: Facebook

A Corio man who tormented and assaulted a woman for two days has been sent back to jail.

Ricky Blackney, 27, appeared in the County Court at Geelong on Tuesday to be sentenced by Judge Gerard Mullaly.

Last week, Blackney pleaded guilty to six charges relating to a “terrifying episode” that stretched over two days in December 2022 in which Blackney subjected a woman to “hours of intimidation and violence”.

The offending took place at the victim’s home, in cars, in a rural setting and on the streets of Belmont and Winchelsea.

Blackney used a hammer and imitation firearm to “frighten and overbear” the victim.

He strangled the woman more than once, slapped her, slammed her head into the side of a car and a dashboard and drove his car at her when she attempted to escape.

The victim tried to escape multiple times, but was thwarted by Blackney who dragged her back to a car on several occasions.

During the incident, the woman tried calling police herself, asked friends to contact police and even managed to alert a shop attendant at a petrol station, who called triple-0.

The ordeal only came to an end when the police intervened and Blackney was arrested.

When interviewed by police, Blackney gave “false denials and explanations”, the court heard, and attempted to explain his victim’s injuries away as being the result of a medical episode.

Blackney spent 147 days behind bars on the charges before being released on bail.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Gerard Mullaly said he had “no other option” but to send Blackney back to prison.

The offending was violent, sustained and protracted, precipitated by Blackney’s “unrestrained rage” and “cruel determination” to control his victim.

The violence only had to be described for “decent-minded people to recoil”, Judge Mullaly said.

He described the choking of the woman as “brutal and highly dangerous” and said it elevated the crime, noting that strangling was the resort of “cowardly men”.

Judge Mullaly acknowledged a number of factors had been submitted on Blackney’s behalf in mitigation of the offences, including that he had an intellectual disability and an extremely deprived upbringing under parents who “did not parent in any sense of the word”.

He accepted that Blackney’s moral culpability was lessened by these factors and said he likely lacked the opportunity to develop better emotional resources because of them.

Judge Mullaly accepted that Blackney had taken responsibility for his actions through his guilty plea and had shown positive signs while out on bail.

However, he said the mitigating factors “must – to a degree – yield” so as to not “dilute” the more punitive aspects of sentencing.

The crimes were too serious for the limitations of a combined sentence involving a community corrections order, Judge Mullaly found.

Blackney was sentenced to an aggregate term of four years and two months behind bars, with a non parole period of two years, minus the 147 days he previously spent in custody.

Originally published as Ricky Blackney jailed over assaulting, endangering woman in two-day rampage