Deon Smith: Geelong labourer pleads guilty after beating, choking pregnant woman

A Geelong labourer struck and strangled a pregnant woman several times, saying he would kill her “to prove a point”.

A Geelong labourer told a six-week pregnant woman she “wasn’t going to make it through to the next day”, beating and strangling her while she begged for her life and lost consciousness over and over again.

Deon Smith, 31, appeared in Ballarat County Court on Thursday.

The court heard that in November 2021, an argument broke out between him and a woman who was pregnant with his child.

Smith became violent: he punched the woman’s head and body and strangled her.

He took her phone, pinned her to her bed, and sat on top of her while he went through her messages.

Smith punched his victim’s face, stomach, and ribs, choking her — despite her vomiting — until she fainted.

He told her he was going to kill her and that she “wasn’t going to make it through to the next day”.

Smith eventually threw the phone at his victim’s head, by which stage she was bleeding heavily from her nose and head.

When she went to clean herself, Smith strangled her on the bed again, afterwards shoving her head into a wall.

He strangled her until she lost consciousness again, and the woman began begging for her life.

She told Smith she would have his child if he left her alone, but he said “it was too late for that” and that “he wanted to prove a point”.

The woman showered, and Smith asked her how she wanted to die; he said if she did not say, he would just beat her to death.

He began crying and told her to sit at the edge of the bed.

But the victim managed to run from the bedroom, completely naked, and outside the house.

She screamed for help, and Smith seized her, dragging her inside.

But the woman fled again and reached a neighbour’s home, where emergency services were called.

By the time police arrived, Smith had left.

He was later arrested and interviewed.

“I just want to say that everything she says is true,” he told police.

“I’m going to be honest, I was blind f**king drunk, mate.

“I don’t remember saying anything to her. This all happened because I love her so f**king much, as stupid as that sounds.”

After the incident, the victim — six months pregnant at the time — miscarried her baby.

She said in a statement she had “never been more scared”.

“My biggest fear was that my family was going to find me dead and naked,” she said.

“I was convinced I would die that night.”

She said she now had problems sleepwalking, slept with weapons nearby, and had difficulty with intimacy.

Smith’s lawyer Katarina Ljubicic said her client was affected by alcohol and drugs at the time of the offending and was remorseful.

She said he had, as a child, been beaten by his father to the point of hospitalisation and had memories of his mother being kicked on the ground.

Smith pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering life, intentionally causing injury, making a threat to kill, assault, and false imprisonment.

He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at a later date.