Ex-soldier learns fate over animal shelter assault

A young mother held at gunpoint when an ex-soldier stormed the animal shelter she worked at says the trauma she experience is “a life sentence”.

Tony Wittman will be eligible for parole in less than two years. Picture: Supplied

A young animal welfare worker taken hostage when an ex-soldier stormed the shelter searching for his support cat said she never expected to a be a target of such a terrifying crime.

Bailey Scarlett, 24, said she feels her life has been “on hold” for the past year while her attacker was brought to justice.

“I feel like everything has been on pause and now that it’s done it feels a bit strange,” Ms Scarlett told the Herald Sun.

“I don’t know where to go from here,” she said.

Tony Wittman, 45, was on Friday sentenced to at least three years prison for the ambush of the Lost Dogs Home on January 11 last year.

Ms Scarlett, who had been working at the Cranbourne shelter for two years, said it was not only an assault on her, but on the “beautiful organisation”.

Bailey Scarlett has told of the trauma of being held hostage at gunpoint.

“You would never expect to be a target,” she said.

Ms Scarlett told the County Court earlier this week her life was “irrevocably changed” the moment Wittman pointed the barrel of his imitation gun through her car window and tied her up at gunpoint.

“I begged you, I cried to you … I kept telling you I was someone’s mother,” Ms Scarlett said in her victim impact statement.

“But my cries for my son and my life meant nothing to you,” she said through tears.

Ms Scarlett said seeing her attacker on the court video link was the first time she had seen his face properly, without the black balaclava he wore the night of the assault.

“It was like putting a face to the trauma,” she told the Herald Sun.

“I felt like he was still very cold, he didn’t seem remorseful at all,” she said.

Ms Scarlett said delivering her powerful speech in court was a step forward in her healing.

“Just to put it down on paper, I keep a lot of it to myself so it was good to get that out,” she said.

But, she said, she still has a long way to go.

“He’s got his sentence, but for me living with PTSD feels like it’s a death sentence,” she said.

The young mother, who has a passion for animals, said she hopes to return to the work she loves soon.

In sentencing the Langwarrin man to a maximum six years jail, County Court judge Duncan Allen said it was difficult to contemplate the “abject horror and fear” Ms Scarlett would have faced during the “appalling” assault.

Tony Wittman “mentally tortured” an animal shelter worker over his lost cat. Picture: Supplied

Wittman had contacted the Cranbourne shelter about 6pm that evening about his missing cat and was told the business would be closing soon so made an appointment to pick up his pet the next day.

But instead of waiting until the morning, the father-of-three packed a bag of arsenal including a military style vest, an imitation flashbang and firearms, cable ties, a tomahawk, a hunting knife, wire cutters and a pet carrier and drove to the shelter.

After confronting Ms Scarlett in her car, he ordered her into the building at gunpoint before telling her to get on her knees and tying her hands behind her back with cable ties.

After discovering his hostage did not have access to the cat cages, Wittman told her to count to 100 before he made “a tactical withdrawal”.

Wittman then returned to the shelter the following morning to collect his cat and staff quickly notified police after recognising him from CCTV.

He would later claim he was suffering from a “brain meltdown” and PTSD after his 16 years in the Australian Army.

In reality, he had only served two years as a reservist in the mid-90s, had never left the state and was discharged after failing to meet the physical requirements of service.

The court heard Wittman’s PTSD instead stemmed from an unhappy childhood during which he suffered physical and verbal abuse at the hands of his father.

He told police: “The only thing I really treasure in this world is that cat and it was taken away from me”.

Wittman pleaded guilty to five charges including false imprisonment, assault and aggravated burglary.

Judge Allen said he accepted Wittman had shown genuine remorse and took into account his early guilty plea when determining his sentence.

Wittman, who has been in custody since his arrest, will be eligible for parole in less than two years.