There’s simply no excuse for Ben Cousins’ terrifying harassment of ex-partner Maylea Tinecheff
“I AM going to kill you … take your life, your freedom and the things you love the most.” With these words, Ben Cousins killed off any sympathy I had for him, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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DON’T feel sorry for Ben Cousins.
Feel sorry for his terrified ex-partner and his poor kids.
Initially, the idea of Cousins trying to get hold of his Brownlow Medal so he could sell it to buy ice made me feel sad.
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To see one of the greats of the game fall so low is tragic.
And then I heard what he’d done to the mother of his two children, Maylea Tinecheff, over the course of 13 days earlier this month.
He threatened to bury her in a park.
He said he’d take their children to the park after she was dead: “You will be able to hear them but not be able to get at them”.
On another occasion he told her: “The only way for me to see the kids is to have you knocked off. You have one week to rectify this.”
He once got into her car and threatened her with a screwdriver, saying, “I can’t wait to use it”.
He told her: “I am going to kill you … take your life, your freedom and the things you love the most”.
His charges include aggravated burglary at Tinecheff’s house and repeated breaches of a family violence restraining order.
Cousins broke down in tears, begging the magistrate not to send him back to prison.
He told the magistrate he’d become a victim of the legal system and presented no danger to anyone.
He said he only wanted to see more of his children. It’s an excuse often trotted out by parents to justify their abusive, violent ways.
Thankfully, Magistrate Andrew Maughan said Cousins posed too much of a threat to his ex-partner’s safety and he’s now behind bars until October 30. Cousins can’t see what he’s done, and can’t imagine the terror he’s inflicting on Tinecheff and his kids.
He continues to insist that he’s the victim and that he’s not a danger to her or their children.
“If there’s one thing that is a strength of my character, it is my ability to not act out in violence,” he told the Magistrate Maughan.
What he doesn’t realise is that the calls, the threats the break-ins, the visits and the breaches of the order are violence.
Cousins is lamenting that every day that passes is another day he’s not going to see his children.
But the thing that’s stopping him from being with them is his own violent, erratic, threatening behaviour.
Cousins may say he is the “safest and best option for those children” and that he’s changed, but he’s not changed his behaviour one bit.
After all, Cousins was sentenced to 12 months behind bars recently after stalking Tinecheff and repeatedly breaching a violence restraining order.
Cousins bombarded her with more than 2000 texts and phone calls in two months and approached her at her church, her home and their children’s school.
He tried to contact her 542 times in November 2016, including 103 times in a single day.
And yet despite all that, Tinecheff continues trying to help him and agreed to meet him to discuss the children with him on August 8.
Sure, Cousins is sorry — he’s sorry for himself. Until he changes his behaviour and stops harassing his ex-partner and kids, he will get no sympathy at all from me.
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