Ricky Blackney, 27, pleads guilty to assaulting woman in two-day rampage

A drug-addled Corio man strangled a woman, threatened her with a fake gun and a hammer, and drove his car at her when she tried to escape during a two-day rampage, a court has heard.

Ricky Blackney appeared in the County Court at Geelong on September 10, 2024. Picture: Facebook

A drug-addled Corio man strangled a woman, threatened her with a fake gun and a hammer, and drove his car at her when she tried to escape during a two-day rampage, a court has heard.

Ricky Blackney, 27, pleaded guilty in the County Court in Geelong to two counts of common law assault, three counts of conduct endangering persons and one count of possession of an imitation firearm as a prohibited person.

The court heard Blackney first assaulted the woman at around 6.20am on December 22, 2022.

Blackney grabbed her and dragged her into a car after she visited a Belmont home.

Later that morning, Blackney interrogated the woman in her own garage for hours, smashing a hammer onto the concrete floor to intimidate her, and slamming her face into the side of a car when she tried to get up from a chair, the court heard.

When the woman tried to fight back Blackney strangled her.

Later that day, he showed the woman an imitation firearm and told her he “should shoot her”.

Blackney took the woman on a drive towards Winchelsea on December 23, 2022 and slammed her face into the dashboard.

When she tried to escape at a truck stop, Blackney dragged the terrified woman back into the car.

The woman tried to run away again when they stopped by a reserve, but Blackney drove at her.

She fell over trying to avoid being hit.

When she couldn’t stand up, Blackney again strangled her.

At numerous points throughout the drive, the woman tried to get help.

She mouthed the word “police” to a petrol station employee, sent friends her location and asked them to contact police and called triple-0 herself.

She told one contact she was scared Blackney would kill her.

In a victim impact statement read by prosecutor Fiona Martin, the woman said Blackney had “destroyed” her life, and she had since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Blackney’s lawyer, barrister David Rofe, told the court his client had made “great strides” towards rehabilitation since being released on bail.

Mr Rofe submitted that a combination sentence of time served plus a community corrections order (CCO) would be sufficient.

Blackney spent 147 days behind bars before being granted bail and was “fearful” of going back, the court heard.

He said Blackney had been proactive in engaging with treatment programs and shown remorse.
According to Blackney, he was using cocaine, Xanax and ice at the time of the offending and had little memory of the incident.

Blackney had endured a deprived and abusive upbringing, Mr Rofe said, but had “effectively severed ties” with his “dysfunctional” family.

Ms Martin told the court the offending was “protracted” and “relentless” and rejected elements of the defence, including the conclusions of a psychological report.

Ms Martin said it was “convenient” that Blackney claimed not to remember the incident and argued for more jail time.

“There are little words that can really describe the viciousness of this offending,” she said.

Blackney will be sentenced on September 17.

Originally published as Ricky Blackney, 27, pleads guilty to assaulting woman in two-day rampage