John James Thomas Crotty: Choked woman had hair pulled trying to escape

A man grabbed a woman’s throat and mouth, hit her head and caused her to almost pass out in a brutal assault.

A man has pleaded guilty to several changes, including common law assault.

A woman was choked, hit in the head with a phone and had her hair pulled while trying to escape during a man’s horrifying attack in Mildura.

John James Thomas Crotty, 43 and of no fixed address, appeared last week by video link from custody at the County Court, in relation to offences at Mildura.

Crotty pleaded guilty to charges including recklessly causing injury, common law assault, false imprisonment, reckless conduct endangering a person, threat to destroy property and intentionally damaging property.

Prosecutor Damian Plummer told the court in September 2019 Crotty became angry after being asked by a woman to leave her house.

He started yelling and threw her property into a corridor.

Court documents reveal Crotty told the woman: “Just shut the f**k up, you dumb c**t.”

Crotty then pushed her to the floor, put one hand on her throat and another on her mouth.

The court was told the woman couldn’t breathe before Crotty slowly removed his hands.

Soon after he again called her a “c**t” and began choking her.

The woman, out of breath, attempted to leave by kicking out a flyscreen window.

Crotty grabbed the woman’s clothes and hair as she was stepping out.

Curtains were ripped from the wall as she fell back.

The woman’s throat and mouth were again covered, before Crotty hit her over the head with a phone.

Documents show the woman was said to have felt like she was losing consciousness.

She ran outside, where she yelled out for somebody to call the police.

A witness noticed the woman was bleeding and called 000, and saw Crotty leaving the scene.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said she had lived in fear, suffered anxiety, felt “broken” and couldn’t sleep.

Crotty’s defence barrister Matt Murphy sought a community corrections order assessment for his client, who had spent 549 days in pre-sentence detention.

A prison program co-ordinator, Peter Wroblewski, gave evidence that Crotty had gone through a 12-step program to abstain from alcohol and had helped run such sessions during the COVID pandemic.

Mr Wroblewski told the court Crotty had “very good” prospects of remaining abstinent if returned to the community.

Judge Duncan Allen said a report had found Crotty to be lacking “empathy, insight and acceptance of responsibility”.

Judge Allen also said there was a compelling need for Crotty to participate in a structured education program.

But he said it hadn’t been determined whether such a program would be available to Crotty in the community.

“The sad fact is although our government bleats about community protection and the like, it fails to put in place anything like the additional resources necessary to achieve the rehabilitation that is compellingly needed for people like Mr Crotty,” Judge Allen said.

The matter was adjourned to May 7, so a further report can be made, as well as further inquiries about what services would be available were a community corrections order to form part of Crotty’s sentence.