Chace Monaghan: Numurkah man pleads guilty to false imprisonment, endangering lives

A Numurkah man put the lives of his girlfriend and baby daughter at risk all over some spilt soft drink as he drove.

A Numurkah man told his girlfriend “I don’t care if you die “, a court has heard.

A rage fuelled Numurkah driver who told his girlfriend “I don’t care if you die”, as he tried to evade police with his baby daughter in the car, has been jailed.

Chace Monaghan, 22, was sentenced to six years and four months behind bars with a non-parole period of four years at Melbourne County Court on Tuesday.

He pleaded guilty to charges of conduct endangering persons, conduct endangering life, recklessly causing injury, recklessly exposing an emergency worker to risk by driving, false imprisonment earlier this month.

In July 2019, Monaghan’s girlfriend accidentally spilled some soft drink on him as they drove to the appointment at Broadford, causing him to become upset.

Monaghan started overtaking cars at high speeds and the woman threatened to phone police if he did not slow down.

The court heard Monaghan hit his girlfriend in the face, causing a bleeding cut under the woman’s eye as her face swelled up.

The then 20-year-old left the Goulburn Valley Highway and started driving down back roads, where his partner phoned 000 and told them her boyfriend wouldn’t let her out of the car.

The court heard Monaghan refused to stop the vehicle and said he would take her to his step-grandmother’s house in Rushworth.

Police saw the Monaghan’s car, a Holden Captiva, reach speeds of up to 160km/h, forcing oncoming traffic to veer off the road to avoid head-on collisions.

He ignored police direction to stop.

In was revealed the man’s partner feared for her life and took a knife from the glove box to defend herself in case she was attacked again.

She decided to cut her wrist hoping to shock him into stopping the car.

When they arrived at the Rushworth property, Monaghan told her to go and clean up herself up after she wrapped her wrists in a blanket from her car.

As police approached the house on foot, Monaghan tried to speed off and police started to chase the car before it was called off for safety.

In sentencing Monaghan, Judge Anne Hassan said she didn’t believe the young father had shown “no real remorse” for the incident.

“Your offending was exceptionally dangerous,” Judge Hassan said.

At the plea hearing, Monaghan’s defence Andrew Purcell said his client, who had been using methamphetamine before the events, “wants to stay away from drugs, reconnect with his daughter and have a family life again”.

“He has a long road ahead of him,” Mr Purcell said.

Mr Purcell said Monaghan’s family “love him, care for him and want to see him get well”.

The court heard a day after the events, Monaghan and the car were found at a rural Cranbourne property where police tried to confront the then 20-year-old.

But Monaghan reversed the car directly into the police car before leading them on another high-speed chase.

The car was found abandoned a short time later.

It was revealed Monaghan bought an unregistered 1999 Ford Forte sedan for $450 which was used to steal fuel on two separate occasions.

He was apprehended by police on August 6, 2019 after a police pursuit on the Hume Freeway.

He was also charged with three counts of theft.

Monaghan had already served 437 days in custody before being sentenced.