Sunbury father silences courtroom with heart-wrenching victim impact statement

Read about the moment a local court was stunned into silence by a father’s gut wrenching letter to his meth-using son.  

A local court was stunned into silence after a father’s powerful victim impact statement, written to his drug-affected and abusive son, was read out loud. ​

A Melbourne court has been stunned into silence after the father of a recovering meth user has had his emotional victim impact statement read out.

The man, 39, pleaded guilty in the Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court on Monday to multiple breaches of a Family Violence Intervention Order, which his father had taken out against him in 2019.

The letter, read out by the prosecution, said the father’s “spirit was broken” after seeing his son “throw his life into the gutter”.

The court was told the man, whose marriage had broken down due to infidelity in 2012, had turned to drugs, in particular meth.

Police said this reached a head in 2019 when, despite being barred from attending his father’s Sunbury home because of a FVIO, he was forced to flee from his address and phone 000 because of his son’s unwanted arrival.

“I can’t wait to piss on your grave,” the man confessed to telling his father after the latter failed to take enough interested in a “spiritual” piece of jewellery that the son wanted to buy.

The man also pleaded guilty to attending his father’s address on March 28, 2020, in a “fit of rage.”

The court was told that the father left his home again for his own safety.

His father said it had been “difficult to try and verbalise this nightmare”.

“I love my son … But the events of the past three years have broken my spirit.”

He said he had been “abused, threatened and assaulted” by his son, but felt as though he had failed him.

“I’ve watched him throw his life in the gutter.”

He said he used to attend church and prayer meetings, but this had stopped, along with his belief in God, because of his son’s drug addiction.

“God has not answered my prayers,” he said.

The letter concluded with the question, “this is my Victim Impact Statement, but who is the real victim?”

The man received a good behaviour bond for the breaches of the FVIO.

Magistrate Stella Stuthridge said it was evident Mumford, who now lives in the CBD, “looks healthy” and posed no risk of reoffending.

Ms Stuthridge said he had gone “so many months” without offending.