Bendigo drug dealer Brandon Knight jailed for to weapons, drugs and violence charges

A judge has described a Bendigo drug dealer as “brutal and cowardly” for tracking down and shooting at his former partner.

A judge has labelled a Bendigo drug dealer “as brutal and cowardly” for holding a sawn-off shotgun to his former partner’s head before jailing him.

Brandon Knight, 28, was sentenced to six years and nine months in jail after pleading guilty to a string of drug, weapon and violence charges in the Bendigo County Court last week.

Knight, who was born in Shepparton, admitted he tracked his former partner down to her mother’s house in Nowra, NSW, after she fled their violent and volatile relationship.

The court heard the father of two showed up at the woman’s mother’s house with his loaded, sawn-off shotgun and fired it twice into the ground.

Later, after the woman returned to the Bendigo area, and when she was staying with a friend, Knight showed up at the front door of that house late one night in February 2020, asked if anyone else was home, and again pulled a gun on her.

The court heard the woman recognised the gun from when Knight fired it at her mother’s home in Nowra.

Bendigo drug dealer Brandon Knight pleaded guilty to a string of drugs, weapons and violence charges in the County Court. Picture: Supplied

The woman got on her knees, and put her hands in front of her face in fear, thinking Knight was going to kill her.

Around midnight, Knight put the gun in his pants and forced her into his car, where he told her she was “about to get the biggest hiding” when they reached his house.

The woman was so scared she considered jumping from Knight’s moving car.

At his house, Knight said he would not hurt her if she told the truth about seeing another man, but when she told him she was not, he choked her until she blacked out.

Knight also punched her, before fetching a towel and telling her he didn’t want her to get blood on his bed.

Knight warned her not to report him to police, saying “if I find out you have told the filth, watch your f**king self”.

A later police raid on Knight’s house uncovered $50,000 worth of methamphetamine, $21,400 in cash illegal ammunition, mobile phones with messages about drug sales, and a gun in the foot well of his car.

At an earlier plea hearing, Knight’s barrister, William Barker, said his client had endured an abusive childhood.

Judge Mark Dean described the attack as “appalling” having occurred in a “brutal and cowardly manner”.

“You attacked a defenceless, vulnerable female in an act of intimidating control,” he said.

“I have no doubt it is the fundamental responsibility of this court to protect the community from offending of this nature.”

Knight will be eligible for parole after serving three years and six months behind bars.

He had served 578 days pre-sentence detention at the time of sentencing.