Oakleigh’s Darren Olson allegedly harassed fetish partner with explicit texts
An Oakleigh father of three has appeared in court after he allegedly harassed a woman he met through a sexual fetish service in St Kilda, sending her up to 100 explicit text messages in a row.
Inner South
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An Oakleigh man has fronted court over harassment charges after he allegedly “bombarded” a woman he met on a bondage website with up to 100 explicit messages.
Darren Olson is also facing assault charges after he allegedly bashed his ex-partner’s face and threw her into a window during an alcohol-fuelled rage.
Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court heard Mr Olson, 57, had struck up a relationship with a woman he met through a BDSM service in St Kilda.
As part of the service, the woman would talk to him as though they were domestic partners and would even perform household chores such as cleaning and buying groceries.
The court heard the relationship was not sexual but that Mr Olson would “often beg for sex” and was co-dependent towards the alleged victim.
Mr Olson’s started buying the woman gifts, including giving her about $8000 towards a new car, despite her telling him the relationship would not develop any further.
In December last year Mr Olson allegedly starting harassing the woman via text messages, “bombarding her with anywhere between 25 to 100 messages in a row”.
Most of the message were explicit and dominating, including directing the woman to “get on your knees, I’m going to mentally destroy you” and “you’re a slut”.
The court heard the woman was so frighted she reported the messages to police. When asked about them, Mr Olson didn’t deny sending frequent messages but said he could not remember the content and that he had been drunk at the time.
A month earlier, Mr Olson had visited his ex-partner at her Brighton home where he allegedly punched her in the face and threw her into a window.
The court heard the pair had been doing shots of Vodka together and had downed an entire bottle in 30 minutes before starting on a second.
The woman’s friend called police after she received text messages stating: “He’s gone crazy, please call the police, please help me, I’m scared.”
The woman also sent a photo of her face covered in blood with a message saying “my face is so f***** up, it’s so punched in”.
During a police interview, Mr Olson said he couldn’t remember anything after the second bottle of vodka, including how he got home from the alleged victim’s house.
He told police he and the woman had argued the night before the alleged incident after she told him she had been intimate with another man but he couldn’t remember if they had argued about it again that night.
Mr Olson’s lawyer, Adrian Dessi, told the court his client had no prior criminal history but he had suffered from anxiety and depression since the breakdown of his 27-year marriage in 2014.
He had been made redundant from his long-time job as a supervisor at Ventura Bus and his mother had died around the same time, the court heard.
Mr Dessi said alcohol has played a role in both of the alleged incidents.
But Magistrate Stephen Lee said “hiding behind the alcohol” excuse wouldn’t wash.
“Alcohol can in no way be relied upon as a mitigating circumstance,” he said.
“If someone takes drugs or alcohol then commits an offence, it doesn’t mitigate the offending at all.”
Mr Lee said he wanted to see victim impact statements before he could determine what sentence he would likely impose on Mr Olson
The matter will return to court next month.
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