Melbourne cocaine dealer Darcy Charleston pleads guilty to false imprisonment, threatening woman

A Melbourne coke dealer dragged his frightened victim to a beach where he threatened to rip the young woman’s “f--king skull off’.

Melbourne cocaine dealer Darcy Charleston pleaded guilty to false imprisonment. Facebook.

A “toxic and entitled” brute who threatened to permanently brand a woman’s face during a terrifying ordeal blamed his victim for his foul acts, a court has heard.

Darcy Charleston, 26, was sentenced in the County Court on Friday to time served – 393 days – after pleading guilty to false imprisonment.

Charleston collared the woman and seized the victim’s phone and keys before driving her to Altona Beach to “push her off the pier” in May last year.

The Werribee Construction worker threatened to “punch her jaw off”.

Charleston, a convicted drug dealer, also taunted the victim with threats he would “grab your f--king hair and rip your f--king skull off” if she didn’t do what he said.

The violent grub, who also pleaded guilty to threat to inflict serious injury, then threatened to “permanently brand” the victim by burning her face so she would “forever remember him”.

The victim said she was “scared and didn’t want to die”.

Charleston told the victim to “shut the f--k up and stop complaining” and be a “good woman” after she told her assailant she was “scared and wanted to go home”.

Charleston, who also pleaded guilty to intentionally damage property, said he wanted to bash the victim but wouldn’t because he would “go back to jail”.

He then stabbed the victim’s mobile phone with a screwdriver before grabbing her throat and dragging her to the Altona Beach front.

Charleston then threw the victim’s phone and keys in the water.

Police later arrested and charged Charleston who blamed his victim for his foul acts, implying to a psychologist that she deserved it, the court heard.

The victim told the court the trauma she suffered after the incident was “all consuming”.

She said Charleston’s attack had left her feeling “suffering from severe anxiety and PTSD” and the ordeal was “impacting her daily life”.

“I do not feel safe anywhere I go,” she told the court.

The court heard Charleston was on a court order at the time of his frenzied endeavour for trafficking cocaine and ecstasy.

Charleston was nabbed with drugs, cash and ammo at his dad’s Werribee home in November 2022.

Investigators stormed Charleston’s bedroom and seized 269 grams of MDMA, cocaine, $3525, gun ammunition, scales and “small baggies”.

Police discovered an estimated 200 ecstasy pills stashed in Charleston’s closet, the court was told.

Investigators also spotted Charleston “closing messages” on his phone after raiding the property.

The court heard police seized the phone and instructed Charleston to unlock his device but he refused.

Investigators later discovered messages “indicative of (Charleston) selling drugs to associates”.

Charleston told police the ecstasy pills had been in his closet for “a week and a bit” but the pills “did not work”.

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Charleston also claimed the white powder (cocaine) was “Panadol, flour and other unknown cutting agents” and he got the cash through “work and selling car parts”.

The Melbourne Magistrates’ Court heard Charleston used cocaine “two to three days” through the week and “constantly” from Friday to Sunday and he trafficked MDMA to bankroll his coke habit.

Charleston, who served 34 days on remand for his drug offending, was handed an 18-month CCO after he was sentenced in April last year.

Judge Nola Karapanagiotidis said, during Friday’s County Court sentencing, Charleston’s “aggressive and controlling behaviour” demonstrated a “toxic and entitled attitude” towards women.

Judge Karapanagiotidis convicted Charleston and handed him another 18-month community correction order.

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