Luke Hardeman: Bondi Junction man sentenced for assaulting escort girlfriend

A Sydney-based fly-in fly-out miner forced his way into a bathroom where his girlfriend was hiding and slapped her across the face, while she was recovering from Brazilian butt lift surgery.

Waverley Local Court

An expat fly in fly out miner living in Bondi has learned his fate for a barrage of “controlling and appalling” assaults on his escort ex-girlfriend as she recovered from major plastic surgery.

Luke Hardeman, 29, was convicted and sentenced for six domestic violence-related assaults, using a carriage service to menace and harass, three AVO breaches, and cocaine possession at Waverley Local Court on Monday.

He entered guilty pleas to the charges in November but had initially sought to have the charges dismissed under mental health legislation

According to police facts tendered to court, the woman, who Hardeman had been seeing for seven months, was recovering from a “Brazilian butt lift” cosmetic procedure when the assaults occurred.

In the popular procedure, liposuction removes stomach fat and injects it into the patient’s buttocks.

Luke Hardeman. Source: Instagram.

Police facts state about 12.30am on October 16, 2021 Hardeman pushed the woman onto a bed before forcing his way into a bathroom where she had escaped to hide – and slapped her in the face.

The next morning, he began arguing with her about who she was texting, then dragged her from the front door to the bedroom when she tried to leave.

The court heard through submitted letters the woman had earned income as a topless waitress and an escort.

Hardeman’s lawyer Julieanne Levick agreed the charges against her client were “horrendous” but said the man’s past trauma and commitment to rehabilitation meant the court should consider diverting the sentence on mental health grounds.

Hardeman after leaving court on Monday.

Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge said she was not “dismissing” the Bondi man’s personal history but warned repeated domestic violence-related offenders must be “held to account”.

“Victims of domestic violence cannot wait until a perpetrator figures out what has gone wrong,” Ms Milledge said.

“This is what everyone is concerned about in our community; our police, our politicians, everyone”.

Ms Milledge said she must balance evidence of this “good work” against the serious and “ongoing” offending.

The matter was heard at Waverley Local Court.

“He knew at the first arrest he had a problem. He knew at the second arrest he had a problem. He knew at the third arrest he had a problem”.

“How long must someone suffer at the hand of a domestic abuser before the penny drops?”

The magistrate denied the application for Hardeman to be discharged into the care of a mental health practitioner and have the charges dismissed.

Instead Ms Milledge convicted Hardeman of all offences and sentenced him to a 30-month community corrections order and a $1000 fine for the drug possession.

He has been fined a combined $3000 for his three AVO breaches and a new two-year AVO has been taken out on behalf of the woman identified as the victim.