Jesse Hawkeswood guilty of kidnap and assaulting woman he tied up with duct tape
Cafe chef Jesse Hawkeswood was on a three-day ice bender when he detained and assaulted a terrified woman, tied duct tape over her mouth and demanded $30,000 in cash.
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A Blue Mountains man who tied up a woman using duct tape and threatened her with a knife while under the influence of methylamphetamine has told a court his behaviour was “completely out of character”.
Jesse Hawkeswood, 38, of Medlow Bath, has pleaded guilty to take and detain person with intent to commit an indictable offence, common assault, and intentionally or recklessly destroy property relating to offences on April 6 last year.
According to court documents, Hawkeswood was living at an address on St Albans Rd, Medlow Bath, when his victim came to the home and noticed one of the back windows had been shattered and a fly screen had been broken.
When she asked Hawkeswood what happened, he opened the door and yelled “you have messed with the wrong person”.
He then dragged the victim into one of the bedrooms of the house where he demanded $30,000 to help pay off an ex-girlfriend’s debt and told her he’d knock her unconscious.
Court documents show the woman tried to reason with him, but he dragged her to the lounge room and threatened to kill her if she didn’t tell him where the duct tape was.
He then took the duct tape and a knife from the kitchen, and tied the woman up before making stabbing motions towards her.
The victim was sobbing during the incident.
Hawkeswood eventually went to check on his dog, telling his victim “if you try to escape or call the police, I’ll kill you and your family”.
He later untied his victim, who barricaded herself in her room until the next morning when she told friends about the incident.
In Penrith District Court, Hawkeswood told Judge Sharon Harris he’d been on a three-day bender of methylamphetamine and alcohol before his offending.
“I was consuming five to six points of meth once every one to two weeks,” he said in court.
“The meth use increased leading up to the incident, I used a large amount of meth and was awake for three days.”
Hawkeswood also estimated he’d drunk 23 beers in the lead up to the incident.
“When I first read the police report, I felt sick,” Hawkeswood said.
“I can’t make sense of it, and there’s some points that are really bizarre.
“The behaviour is so out of character it’s out of the realm of what I would have thought would ever be possible in regards to my behaviour and conduct.”
The court heard Hawkeswood, who is a now chef at the Jamaica Blue cafe in Windsor, had been in counselling for his drug and alcohol use both before and since the incident.
He will be sentenced on June 12.