‘Gut the slut’: Rosebud Hells Angel bikie son Benjamin Potocnik threatened to bleed ex to death
A Rosebud thug who had spent months stewing in jail didn’t take long to put a new vile plan into action, buying a phone to threaten his ex just minutes after walking free.
South East
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A son of a bikie who used a phone he brought less than one hour after being released from jail to threaten to kill his ex said he was going to “gut the slut” and “watch every drop of blood” drip from her.
Benjamin Laurence Potocnik had been a free man for just 50 minutes when he bought a mobile so he could continue to abuse his former partner.
The 37-year-old from Rosebud messaged the woman, who is also the mother of his two children, hundreds of times saying he was going to stab her, watch her bleed to death, and calling her a “f***ing mutt”.
Potocnik had just come out of prison after serving five months for very similar offending against the same victim.
At Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Monday he pleaded guilty to threats to kill, persistent breaches of a court order, possessing cannabis and failing to assist police charges.
The court heard Potocnik was released from prison at 8.34am on May 6 this year and bought a mobile phone at 9.24am the same day.
He would use that phone and several others to ring and text the woman over 600 times before he was tracked down to a Rosebud motel.
On August 20 he was arrested with the phones but he refused to provide police with PINs to the devices.
He also had a small quantity of cannabis hidden in a bedside table.
Officers linked him to the abuse through serial numbers on the phones as well as screenshots from the woman’s mobile.
His defence lawyer said Potocnik had a “horrible” upbringing after his Hells Angel father snatched him from his mother when he was aged just 18 months old.
He said the demolition building worker fell off a roof and broke both his legs in 2013, ending up in a wheelchair for a year, and due to drugs and depression his life spiralled out of control.
He said his relationship with the woman recently turned sour and he “lost all control of his emotions”.
Magistrate Julian Ayres warned Potocnik he needed to stop his campaign of abuse.
“It is hundreds of messages using multiple phones,” Mr Ayres said.
“Threatening (the woman) in this manner … is very concerning.
“If you come back on a third occasion you’ll be spending years in prison.”
Potocnik was jailed for six months, minus 88 days he had already served on remand.
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