Timothy Newbegin: Kennington man who locked up Bendigo girlfriend sentenced in court

A Bendigo woman tried to take her own life following a decade-long relationship with a shocking man who locked her in her home. Her abuser has been sentenced in court.

A Bendigo man has been jailed after imprisoning his girlfriend of 10 years in their home, limiting her contact with the outside world to texts with her mother.

Timothy Newbegin was sentenced in Melbourne County Court after he pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning his girlfriend, and assaulting her and her friend in a violent outburst last year.

The court heard his girlfriend had endured 10 years of controlling and violent behaviour which ended in an outburst on October 25.

That final attack included an hour-long rampage involving aggravated burglary, assault, property damage and false imprisonment — all because Newbegin was in a bad mood.

The court heard, after the abuser smashed a cup of tea on the ground and ordered his girlfriend to clean it up, the woman went to her bedroom and phoned her friend for help.

The woman told her friend she had been living in fear of her boyfriend for years.

Despite being scared of what he would do if she left, she followed her friend’s advice and packed her bags.

She pretended to take her dog outside before jumping the fence into her neighbour’s garden and running down the street to her friend’s parked car.

When they arrived at her Bendigo home the two women locked all the doors, shut the blinds and sat in the lounge room in near darkness, fearing he had followed them.

Then her phone started to ring repeatedly.

The woman texted to tell him she was safe — but was scared of him.

“Get here now or I’m going to lose it,” Newbegin replied.

He called her 14 times in half an hour demanding to know where she was before he kicked in the front door at 8.40pm.

“Get your shit and let’s leave,” he told his cowering girlfriend.

Her friend pleaded for him to stop as he dragged his girlfriend by her arm.

“Please don’t hurt me, I don’t want to go back,” the woman said.

Court documents said Newbegin told his partner’s friend to say nothing and warned her to never contact his girlfriend again.

He then pulled his partner along the ground by her wrist into the lounge room, picked up a few billiard balls and threw them at the wall.

The Bendigo woman agreed to leave, fearing what he would do to her and her friend if she stayed.

After they left her friend called triple-0.

When the couple arrived back at their Kennington home Newbegin locked the front door and ordered her to delete and block everyone on Facebook who had mutuals with her friend.

When she asked him why he wouldn’t let her leave Newbegin threw an open beer can at her.

Locked in with her abuser, she told him she wanted to end her life and started searching through her makeup box for a scalpel.

He kicked over the box, grabbed her by her hair and hit her in the head.

The Bendigo woman crawled away on the ground before the man sat on her and wrestled her mobile from her hands.

She was saved when police arrived at the home at 9.13pm and arrested her abuser.

The court heard, Newbegin told his partner who she could be friends with over their 10 year relationship, stopped her from spending time with other men and limited her contact with her family to only texting her mother.

The court also heard when he left for work he would lock the flywire door from the outside, trapping her inside.

She was only allowed to leave the house with him, unless for appointments with her osteopath.

The court heard the woman was so cut off from her community she only had one friend.

Judge John Smallwood said that he was sentencing the man for “an hour of idiocy” rather than the decade of alleged domestic violence.

Judge Smallwood said Newbegin should be assessed for a community corrections order, which would likely follow his prison sentence.

On Friday June 25 Newbegin was sentenced to one year in prison, followed by a three year community corrections order.

If you or someone you know is struggling, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.