Raymond Gottsche avoids jail sentence after bashing ex-partner

A Healesville man who viciously assaulted and threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend in front of her daughter after forcing his way into their home has avoided jail.

The judge heard Gottsche repeatedly kicked and punched his ex-partner. Stock image.

A Healesville man who punched, kicked and threatened his ex-girlfriend in front of her daughter after forcing his way into their home has avoided jail.

Raymond Gottsche was ordered to serve a two-and-a-half-year community corrections order including 350 hours of community service in the County Court on April 9.

The 48-year-old pleaded guilty to one charge of aggravated burglary, criminal damage and intentionally causing injury after police caught him attacking his former partner on November 13, 2016.

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The court heard the relationship between Gottsche and his ex-girlfriend ended in October 2013, but the pair had subsequently become friends.

Healesville police caught the offender attacking his ex-partner.

On the night of the attack he turned up at her Healesville home about 6.30pm after she had refused to go to his place that morning then ignored several of his phone calls.

When her 18-year-old daughter saw Gottsche climbing the front fence she ordered her daughter to call the police.

She went outside to tell him to leave and was pushed and shoved as a drunk Gottsche demanded his lawnmower.

He urinated on the side fence before throwing items around the veranda and then forced open the front door, breaking the door frame.

Inside the house, he told the woman, “I’m going to burn your camper down and you’re not going anywhere,” and punched her.

The judge heard Gottsche was Healesville born-and-bred.

The court heard he told her he was going to break her hands so she couldn’t work as he continued to assault her while she was on the ground in the doorway.

“I’m going to f***ing kill you,” he screamed.

Judge Paul Grant said “the victim was so petrified she wet herself” as Gottsche repeatedly kicked her and pulled her hair.

Police arrived during the attack and used capsicum spray to subdue Gottsche.

Judge Grant described the incident as “brutal”, “nasty” and “savage”.

He said it was lucky the victim’s only physical injuries were a cut lip, abrasions on her hand and bruising to her arms and body.

The court heard the woman and her daughter felt unsafe in Healesville, where they had been for 10 years, and moved away because of the attack.

Both have been undergoing counselling to deal with the emotional effects of the incident.

Judge Grant said Gottsche, who was Healesville born-and-bred, had two prior convictions, one for recklessly causing serious injury in 2011 and the other for criminal damage in 2014.

He said the man’s recent alcohol disorder gave some indication as to why “a hardworking man in his 40s and generally of good character” had suddenly committed violent offences.

The judge said he did not take Gottsche’s plea “as indicative of deep remorse or of significant empathy”, with the offender having said the event was over exaggerated.

But he gave the Taungurung man credit for consenting to having the charges heard in the Koori Court, even though it further highlighted that he did not “having insight into the seriousness of (his) offending”.

He noted Gottsche had completed a men’s behaviour change program at Anglicare in Lilydale and alcohol counselling at Healesville’s Inspiro Community Health since the attack.

Judge Grant said Gottsche’s rehabilitation was “well advanced” and “there (was) no benefit to the community in disrupting that positive process” with imprisonment.

He said he would have jailed Gottsche for nine months had the offender not pleaded guilty.