Man stabbed ex-wife in neck a day after being served intervention order

A Geelong man was so enraged after being served an intervention order he stabbed his ex-wife in the neck the very next day, a court has heard.

Following the stabbing, the man ended up in a three-hour standoff with police until he agreed to surrender the knife.

An enraged man stabbed his ex-wife in the neck a day after being served with an intervention order, later leading to a police standoff.

The man, aged in his 50s, appeared in the County Court in Geelong via prison link this week, after pleading guilty in September to intentionally causing serious injury and reckless conduct endangering serious injury.

Crown prosecutor Yildana Hardjadibrata told the court that the man and his victim had been married for decades before their relationship broke down towards the end of 2021.

A family violence intervention order (FVIO) was put in place to protect the victim.

With the order set to expire in mid-2022, the w

oman was granted a further FVIO prohibiting the man from contacting her.

A day after being served the order, the victim was driving to work when she encountered her ex-husband driving in the opposite direction.

The man made a gesture of a gun towards the victim and they exchanged middle fingers before the woman pulled over to try to get a photo of him breaching the order.

The man did a U-turn, pulling his car alongside the victim’s and boxing her in.

He got out, armed with a “large hunting knife” with a 30cm blade, the court heard.

He yelled at the victim about extending the intervention order, while the victim dropped her phone as she tried to retrieve it.

The man reached into her car and stabbed her once in the neck, causing a 2-3cm laceration but luckily no major blood vessel was hit.

The woman pushed the knife away, resulting in cuts to her finger and thumb.

“Look at me, you just killed me,” she said.

“No I haven’t yet, I’m going to slit your throat,” he replied, before adding “and then I’m going to go home and kill myself”.

The man left the scene before police and paramedics arrived.

The court heard the incident had several witnesses, and a short while later several police officers went to the man’s address.

As one of the officers attempted to lift a roller door, the man stabbed through the door with a knife, hitting the officer’s ballistic vest.

A standoff ensued, as the man stabbed the roller door multiple times, and armed himself with an angle driver to attempt to cut it further.

He told police: “Just put some bullets into the doors”, the court heard.

Specialist police negotiators were brought to the scene and spent three hours talking to the man before he surrendered to police.

The man’s lawyer told the court her client was very fortunate that he was not facing the Supreme Court for murder.

“Obviously, stabbing somebody to the neck … he’s just incredibly lucky the injuries were minimal,” his lawyer said.

“That’s not to discount no doubt the trauma, the incredibly psychological trauma, (the victim) would have felt as a result.”

His lawyer made a number of submissions on the man’s behalf, touching on his personal circumstances, mental health diagnoses, disadvantaged upbringing and procedural delay in the case.

The man will be sentenced at a later date.

Originally published as Man stabbed ex-wife in neck a day after being served intervention order