Mid-North Coast chef sentenced for threats to share intimate videos, domestic violence charges

A Mid-North Coast chef hit his ex, threatened to kill her and to share intimate videos in a series of DV crimes a magistrate described as “endemic” in the community.

Taree Police Station.

A Mid-North Coast chef slapped his ex-partner in the face, threatened to share intimate videos and to dismantle her body parts next time he saw her at work.

The man in his 20s faced Taree’s Magistrate Allison Hawkins on Monday.

He cannot legally be identified to protect the identity of the victim.

Ms Hawkins told the court the types of crimes the man committed were “completely endemic in our community and too many people are suffering”.

The man pleaded guilty to common assault, stalking and intimidating, using a carriage service to menace and threatening to distribute intimate images without consent.

The victim would have felt a “paralysing fear of having her most intimate moments shared with the world”, the court heard.

The Mid-North man cannot legally be identified.

Ms Hawkins said in the modern age there was nothing unusual about “voluntarily recording imitate acts”, but threats to distribute intimate videos were a “scourge in our community”, and a classic marker of domestic violence.

The man and the victim were in a relationship for about five months before the offending, police state in court documents.

On the night of February 6, he became angry and slapped the victim in the face after cooking dinner at his Taree home.

The woman feared he would continue his attack “by the way he was looking at her”.

When the woman tried to leave, he placed his head against her head and pushed her downwards about five times.

He then threatened to bash the woman, kill her and dismantle her body parts the next time he saw her.

The victim managed to flee outside and contact a friend, who phoned police for help. However, the victim was too scared to make a report at the time.

On February 13, the man sent the woman an old intimate video of them together and said: “bring my stuff back and nothing will happen” and “I have a lot more than that”.

About five days later, he called the woman’s phone about 20 times between 9.30pm one evening to the early hours of the morning.

He was arrested on February 18 and admitted sending the victim videos, but denied threats to make them public.

The defendant was sentenced to a 15-month intensive correction order, fined $800 and must submit to electronic monitoring.

He must stay away from the victim and if he breaches the order by being violent “jail will well and truly be on the cards”, Ms Hawkins warned.