Nathan Kane Delaine insists on own imprisonment at Ballarat court after threatening woman with cleaver

A former Ballarat man told a magistrate that he wants to be sent to prison because he “deserves it” after threatening to slit a woman’s throat.

Nathan Delaine threatened a woman in Ballarat with a cleaver. Picture: File

A former Ballarat man insisted on being imprisoned after he threatened a woman with a cleaver in front of a child.

Nathan Kane Delaine faced Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on Monday and pleaded guilty to an assault with a weapon and threatening to inflict serious injury.

The court heard Delaine, 36 at the time, was at a Ballarat home in May 2024 when he went into a room wielding a cleaver, stood over a woman, raised the weapon over his head, and told her, “I’m going to slit your throat.”

A child was in the room at the time.

Delaine later called police for a welfare check on himself, telling them he “mentally snapped”.

Delaine pleaded guilty at Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

At court, Magistrate Guillaume Bailin said he was willing to impose an 18-month community corrections order, with the offending sufficiently serious to leave only that or prison as sentencing options.

But Delaine – who now lives in Sydney, complicating any state-based orders - said repeatedly his preference was to go to prison.

“I’d like to go to jail,” he said.

“I deserve it for what I did.”

As a corrections order requires consent, Delaine was found unsuitable for one.

He thanked Mr Bailin as he was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment and entered the dock with arms crossed to be taken into custody.