Dion Belcastro lodges appeal to prison sentence

A judge has sealed the fate of a western Sydney builder after he appealed a jail sentence for threatening to “break every bone” in a Supreme Court judge’s body and making death threats to his ex-wife. Read the latest.

Dion Belcastro in 2018. Picture: Social media

A judge has sealed the fate of a western Sydney man who made vile threats to hurt a Supreme Court justice and kill his ex-wife, after he lodged an appeal over a jail sentence.

Emu Plains man Dion Belcastro was sentenced to 15 months jail in the Penrith Local Court on March 6 after he pleaded guilty to charges of threatening a person for being a judicial officer and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, along with unrelated charges of driving with a drug in his saliva and a domestic violence charge of stalking or intimidating.

Court documents stated Belcastro had threatened to “break every bone” in a Supreme Court Justice’s body after he was court-ordered to leave his home after defaulting on mortgage repayments, sending a threatening email while recovering from surgery in hospital.

He lodged an appeal against the severity of his sentence in a bid to serve the remainder of it outside prison, with Judge Thomas Jones handing down his judgement on Wednesday.

Judge Jones said in his findings that Belcastro had shown little, if any, genuine remorse for his actions and called it “entirely egocentric in nature”.

Dion Belcastro is appealing his jail sentence.

He said Belcastro also appeared to have no insight into the effect his actions had on his victims.

Judge Jones then dismissed Belcastro’s appeal, and confirmed his jail sentence was to continue. He was remanded in custody.

Dion Belcastro faced the Penrith District Court (pictured) from custody on Monday, April 7.

Belcastro did not say anything in response to the judgement being handed down, other than “yes” when asked if he understood what was happening.

Belcastro represented himself in the Penrith District Court on Monday, telling Judge Thomas Jones Legal-Aid had “pulled out on (him)”.

The 40-year-old man told the court he was “very sorry” for his actions in relation to the threats made to the Supreme Court Justice.

He explained how he lost his Emu Plains home due to defaulting on his mortgage, which he claimed was due to losing money while working as a builder, and wrote the abusive email “out of anger”.

He said he would never follow through with his threats and called his actions “stupid and a mistake”.

Judge Jones then brought up the death threats Belcastro made against his ex-wife, some which were made in front of his relatives, to which Belcastro said was him “mucking around”.

The threats included “I’ll end your life” and that she would “end up with a broken leg or a broken arm”.

“I understand those words are mean, harsh and threatening … I was only mucking around but (she) took it seriously,” he said.

He said he had never threatened anybody in the 20 years he was married to his ex-wife, which prompted Judge Jones to highlight Belcastro’s criminal history.

The court heard he had a conviction from 2011 after he stalked a highway patrol officer by tracking down a family member and impersonating the officer’s childhood friend to get information on his residential address and whereabouts.

Belcastro responded saying he was 18 or 19 at the time and “stupid”.

Judge Jones then highlighted another conviction from 2015 where Belcastro had called the Gallipoli Mosque in Auburn shortly after the Sydney Lindt Cafe siege attack, threatening to “kill and blow up every Muslim”.

Belcastro responded saying those comments were never to be taken seriously either, and that he was just joking.

“I’m not going to say what I said and did was right, it was stupid,” he said, in relation to all offences raised by Judge Jones.

Belcastro also told the court if released, he would begin seeing a psychologist.