Ann-Maree Chandler: Dubbo woman guilty of DV assault
Shocking details of the ‘toxic’ relationship a regional NSW businesswoman and her ex were in have been played out in court.
Dubbo News
Don't miss out on the headlines from Dubbo News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The owner of a Dubbo disability service has been found guilty of assaulting her former partner and using a carriage service to harass him.
Indig Connect owner Ann-Maree Chandler, 45, pleaded not guilty to the charges and a hearing to resolve the dispute was held in Dubbo Local Court on Monday.
Another charge of intimidation was also examined during the hearing, however it was dismissed because there was insufficient evidence to support a finding of guilt.
The court heard the charges stemmed from an incident which occurred at the Indig Connect office where Chandler worked with her former partner Mark Merritt in Brisbane St, on November 23, 2020.
Mr Merritt and Chandler agreed they had an argument, however the reason for their conflict and what happened while it took place and in the aftermath, were the key factors in dispute.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Edward Knight told the court Mr Merritt announced he was ending the relationship with Chandler and she assaulted him.
“She made efforts to try to coerce him into remaining in the relationship,” Sgt Knight said.
“He tried to leave the office … she was begging him to stay … and she stood in his way while he was trying to get out of the office.
“She grabbed him on the shirt, grabbed him on the arms and wouldn’t let him leave those premises. That constitutes the assault.”
Sgt Knight said after Mr Merritt left the office, phone records obtained by police showed Chandler made 39 calls to Mr Merritt and sent various messages.
The court heard the intimidation charge was laid because Chandler had told a mutual friend, Waide Cross, and Mr Merrit’s sister, that her former partner had allegedly sexually assaulted her and Mr Merritt claimed it was a false allegation that was made up to intimidate him and cause fear of mental harm.
Defence lawyer Jai Silkman told the court he had not received any response from police about whether or not Chandler’s allegation of sexual assault had ever been investigated.
The court heard the allegedly intimidating allegation Chandler made was raised with police during an interview after Mr Merritt reported her to police.
The police officer in charge of the investigation into Mr Merritt’s complaint about Chandler told the court “she refused to provide a statement or elaborate further” about the sexual assault allegation.
Constable Liam Maloney told the court while he never referred Chandler’s allegation to detectives, he did raise it with the specialist domestic violence team and when Chandler later made another statement to police, she didn’t mention the sexual assault allegation.
Waide Cross told the court Chandler first raised the sexual assault allegation with him in mid-2020.
“She said ‘Mark doesn’t know about consent’,” Mr Cross told the court.
Relaying details of a conversation he had with Chandler, Mr Cross said “she didn’t ask him to stop or say that she was uncomfortable”.
“I asked her why she didn’t express anything … she replied with ‘because he needs to learn a lesson’.
“That’s where I became concerned, it seemed she was claiming Mark didn’t know about consent but didn’t actually give him a clear indication that consent wasn’t given and that seems very dangerous to me.”
Mr Merritt has denied any wrongdoing.
He said he reported Chandler on December 8, 2020, after a conversation with his sister.
“My sister rang me to and told me she had a phone conversation with Ann-Maree and Ann-Maree was telling her how upset she was … she wanted to let my sister know that I forced sex on her,” Mr Merritt told the court.
Mr Silkman told Merritt “you wanted to get to the police first because you were concerned they were going to believe her story”.
“Not at all mate,” Mr Merritt responded.
Sgt Knight said Chandler contacted Mr Merritt’s sister “with the intention of causing the complainant to fear mental harm”.
Magistrate Stephen Olischlager said there was “no evidence put to the court that Ms Chandler knew the allegation would be conveyed to the complainant”.
“I do not consider there is any inference that could be drawn that could give rise to evidence to support the element of intention to cause fear of mental harm either by reckless indifference or directly,” he said.
The intimidation charge laid against Chandler was dismissed.
When giving evidence about the incident in the Indig Connect office, Chandler said an argument started after Mr Merritt accused her of making an offensive remark about one of his family members.
“I said to him ‘I didn’t say that Mark’ … he called me a f****** sp***ic,” Chandler told the court.
“I stood near the door and said ‘please can you talk to me about this’.
“We went and sat down on the lounges near the doorway … he jumped up and ran out of the office.”
Chandler said the only physical contact she and Mr Merritt had was a “cuddle”.
“He cuddled me back,” she said.
When questioned about the excessive number of phone calls to Merritt, Chandler said she made them because she was concerned about his wellbeing and was desperate to talk to him.
“He didn’t break up with me,” she said.
“It was a traumatic relationship that I was in. We had a toxic relationship, I had ongoing domestic violence and other issues that were happening that we were trying to sort out.”
Chandler denied she “overreacted”, however Sgt Knight said in one text message to Mr Merritt she did say that she overreacted.
“I always tried to placate him by making my feeling less,” Chandler said.
“I don’t think I overreacted to being accused of something I didn’t do.”
Sgt Knight said Mr Merritt had told Chandler he was “fine” and asked her to stop calling, yet she continued to attempt to contact him.
“You well knew at the time that repeated unwanted telecommunications were harassing,” Sgt Knight told Chandler.
“No,” Chandler replied.
“I don’t remember leaving voicemails.”
Sgt Knight said hours after the argument, Chandler sent Merritt a message saying “I’m not okay, don’t you care about me”.
“That’s an emotionally manipulative text message,” Sgt Knight said.
Chandler disagreed and said the other reason she tried to contact Mr Merritt was to protect her reputation because she feared he would tell people she had made an offensive remark about his family member.
When Mr Merritt gave evidence he said he tried “eight or nine times” to end the relationship he had with Chandler, however she “guilted” him into staying by accusing him of abandoning her.
“I told Ann-Maree I felt unsafe in the relationship and possibly the best option for both parties was to end the relationship on positive terms,” he said.
“Ann-Maree would wake me up all hours of the night … I wasn’t allowed to sleep when I told her I was leaving.”
Mr Merritt said on the day of the assault, he told Chandler he was ending the relationship however she locked the doors to the Indig Connect office and refused to let him leave the building.
“She jumped up, run around the table and got in front of me and the door of the office,” Mr Merritt said.
“I asked her several times, I said ‘please move, this is domestic violence, this is control you need to stop’.
“She was hysterical.”
When Mr Merritt said he attempted to leave via a back door, he said he was followed.
“I told her ‘this is madness, this is silly it’s domestic violence’.
“Ann-Maree stood on the roller door and wouldn’t let me leave.”
After he managed to get out of the office, Merritt said Chandler followed him down to the corner of Brisbane and Cobra streets.
“She came running behind me and grabbed me,” he said.
“I was saying ‘help’ to cars driving pass.
“I said ‘if this was the other way around there would have been hundreds of people coming to my aide.”
Under cross examination, Mr Merritt denied calling Chandler a “sp**tic” or cuddling her.
He rejected a suggestion it was common to lock the Indig Connect office doors when personal issues were being discussed.
“She put herself up against the door regularly when I said I was leaving,” Mr Merritt said.
Magistrate Olischlager said he found it “difficult to reconcile” the evidence Chandler gave.
“It’s clear from the texts that Mr Merritt indicated a desire not to have further communications,” he told the court.
“In terms of her account, I do note that a number of the aspects of her evidence were not put to the complainant, in terms of an opportunity to respond.
“One would have expected … aspects of her evidence would have been put to the complainant.”
Magistrate Olischlager said Mr Merritt “gave a relatively clear account of the events that had occurred and very detailed account of the incidents”.
In contrast, the court heard evidence given by Chandler appeared to be “inconsistent”.
“I didn’t find it to be compelling … or an account the court considers was believable,” Magistrate Olischlager said.
“I reject that account.”
Chandler was found guilty of domestic violence-related common assault and using a carriage service to harass.
The case was adjourned to May 2022 when Chandler is due to be sentenced and a hearing will be held into a separate lot of charges she has pleaded not guilty to, including resist police, contravene an ADVO and intimidation of Mr Merritt.
Dubbo sale and auction results, week ending February 8
See the latest auction and sales results in Dubbo for last week.
Meet the talented young artists from ARTEXPRESS 2025
The annual art exhibition which shows some of the most outstanding and exemplary artworks across NSW by HSC visual arts students has opened. Meet the students and see their amazing works.