James Connors fronts Heidelberg court for Mill Park unlawful assault, property damage
A British expat who admitted assaulting an Indigenous woman multiple times and calling her a ‘Black sl*t’ has tried to argue he’s not the only one to blame for his crimes.
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A Melbourne magistrate has expressed concern over a British expat’s apparent lack of remorse for “very serious” assaults on an Indigenous woman.
James Connors, 29, faced Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court this week charged with multiple offences against a woman including pushing her, spitting in her face, and smashing her iPhone.
The court heard the offending happened in late 2020 at Mill Park and at a KFC restaurant near Mordialloc.
On one occasion, the woman was recovering from an intrusive surgery when Connors called her a “lazy, fat mum” and pushed and tripped her down a hallway.
Police prosecutor Acting Sergeant Justine Ross told the court Connors had on previous occasions called the woman names such as “Black dog,” “Black s**t,” and “A** tramp”.
Connors pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful assault and one count of intentionally damaging property.
Representing himself in court, the landscape gardener attempted to argue the woman and “the stuff that her family was doing every time they got a drop of drink into them” had played a role in his offending.
He said all the allegations against him had been “very over exaggerated”.
“It wasn’t about me being racist or being abusive — I never have been in my life,” Connors said.
“The reason why this has happened is because of their behaviour towards me.
“I was getting nothing but abuse from that family.
“It wasn’t a case of me being violent or super racist or a Nazi whatever.”
Connors told the court he had moved to Australia from the UK about five years ago and “didn’t know nothing about the Aboriginal community” at the time.
He said the woman’s family had made multiple threats against him and members of his own family including threats to kill.
“I come here, didn't know a single thing about it,” Connors said.
“But when I met her [the victim] and I found out she was Aboriginal, I still accepted her.
“All my friends were saying to me ‘Stay away from them, don’t come near them, they’re trouble’.”
Magistrate Dominic Lennon said Connors did “not appear to be very remorseful” and asked multiple times if he wished to change his plea to dispute the charges.
“I note that you were taking issue with some of the surrounding circumstances, and I was concerned that you weren’t taking responsibility for your actions,” Mr Lennon said.
“You seemed to be asking me to attribute responsibility to other people.”
Connors said he would maintain his guilty plea because he wanted the matters resolved sooner rather than later.
“I’ve been waiting two years now to get my visa to stay here,” Connors said.
“I need to get this out of the way today for the sake of my visa.”
Taking into account Connors’ lack of violent prior convictions, Mr Lennon imposed a six-month community corrections order with a requirement to undertake a men's behaviour change course.
Connors was also ordered to pay the victim $1849 restitution.
No convictions were recorded.
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