Geelong man jailed over ‘cowardly’ stabbing of ex-wife

A man who stabbed his wife in the neck shortly after being served with an intervention order could be eligible for parole within days, a court has heard.

The man pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury and reckless conduct endangering serious injury.

A Geelong man who stabbed his wife in the neck after being served with an extended intervention order has been jailed.

The man, aged in his 50s, was jailed in the County Court for a maximum of three years and one month on Friday by Judge Gregory Lyon, having appeared for a plea hearing in Geelong in February.

The man, who can’t be named to protect the identity of his victim, had pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury and reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
He will be eligible for parole after two years and seven months, but had the 941 days he’d spent in custody reckoned as time served, meaning he will soon be eligible for parole.

The court heard the man had been married to his victim for decades before their marriage broke down in 2021.

A family violence intervention order was granted protecting the woman from her former partner, with provisions barring him from any contact with her at all.

However, the man “lost it” after discovering she’d secured an extended order and confronted her on a suburban street in 2022.

After boxing her car in, the man stabbed her in the neck through the car window, and threatening to slit her throat.

He didn’t act on the threat, but fled before engaging in a three hour stand-off with police.

Judge Lyon denounced the man’s conduct as invoking “the trifecta of abhorrent behaviour scourging our community” including “flagrantly breaching a court order” and a weapon.

“Your use of a knife to attack her in the car was cowardly and egregious, your words to her could only have been said to evoke terror,” Judge Lyon said.

Judge Lyon accepted the man’s actions were not planned, rather spontaneous, reactive and driven by emotion, but it did not “explain or excuse or mitigate” it.

Judge Lyon said his victim was “still suffering considerable psychological injury after your attack”.

The court heard the man grew up in “abject poverty” in Geelong with a father who was violent towards his mother.

The man recounted having behavioural problems as a child that his parents “couldn’t control”, the court heard, including violent outbursts, aggression and “criminal behaviours such as theft and animal cruelty”.

He struggled academically, but did not drink or do drugs and managed to maintain a strong and continuous work history until the breakdown of his marriage.

He had a documented mental health history, which showed he had some insight into his issues, which included major depressive and personality disorders, the court heard.

These factors reduced his moral culpability but “only slightly”, Judge Lyon said.

The court proceedings had involved lengthy delays, largely due to the man’s previous solicitor, who did not bother to show up to four County Court directions hearings.

Judge Lyon said it was “entirely apparent” that the man was “being poorly advised and then badly let down, and at great expense”.

The matter resolved shortly after the man’s current solicitor took over.

Originally published as Geelong man jailed over ‘cowardly’ stabbing of ex-wife