Former Carlton star Nick Stevens sent bashing victim 2500 text messages, court told
FORMER AFL star Nick Stevens faces jail after admitting a campaign of harassment against a girlfriend he beat up.
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FORMER AFL star Nick Stevens faces jail after admitting a campaign of harassment against a girlfriend he beat up.
The ex-Blues player pleaded guilty on Wednesday to sending 2500 texts, many of them threatening, to Laima McKenna in just two months.
Ms McKenna told a magistrate she was now tortured by her memories of Stevens’s abuse of her. And police argued he should be sent to jail.
“I have nightmares about the abuse I suffered. It is like torture. I can’t sleep because of the memories,” she said in her victim impact statement.
The court heard that during one exchange of text messages, after Ms McKenna had gone to police, Stevens told her: “It’s going to get really nasty”, then texted that she would be “6ft under”.
Leading Senior Constable Mark Sontag said most of the messages were threatening and laden with expletives.
“The accused said his lawyers were going to make her out to be a crack whore, were going to ruin her and her reputation,” he said.
He urged that Stevens be jailed.
Stevens, who played 231 games for Carlton and Port Adelaide, was found guilty in January of 12 charges, including making two threats to kill and one of causing serious injury to Ms McKenna in 2013. He had pleaded not guilty.
Magistrate Nunzio La Rosa said Stevens was unrepentant: “He has no remorse, he has shown no remorse, he has adopted no responsibility.”
Ms McKenna said that her character had been assassinated during the assault case.
During the trial, Ms McKenna said that on one occasion she had heard her “cheek pop” as Stevens repeatedly slammed her head against the kitchen wall.
“He said, ‘I’m going to kill you’. He said, ‘I’m going to beat you to within an inch of your life’,” she said.
Ms McKenna said she now lives with a scar on her left cheek as a result of the attack.
“Every time I look in the mirror, put on my makeup or see myself in photos, I am reminded of having my head slammed into a wall, and all the other assaults I endured,” she said.
The court heard Stevens and Ms McKenna exchanged more than 5000 text messages between June and August 2013, met on multiple occasions, and had even gone to a Pink concert together.
Defence lawyer Serge Petrovich said Stevens had thought the pair were “working on their relationship”. But Senior Constable Sontag said Ms McKenna felt “coerced and manipulated” by many of Stevens’s text messages.
Mr Petrovich said this was his client’s first brush with the criminal system. Stevens had been part of Carlton Football Club’s leadership group, and had eagerly devoted time to charity, he said.
Ms McKenna said she had experienced heavy public scrutiny throughout the trial, in which “my character was assassinated” in evidence.
“As a result my family, new partner and I have received backlash from others who believed I should have not spoken out about the crimes done to me,” Ms McKenna said in her victim impact statement.
Mr Petrovich said Stevens could benefit from treatment and community work, suggesting that a community corrections order or a suspended sentence be imposed.
But Senior Constable Sontag urged that Stevens be imprisoned.
“In the Magistrates’ Court this is probably the worst time of domestic offending,” Senior Constable Sontag said.
Stevens will be sentenced at a later date.