Central Qld man sentenced for emotional manipulation of DV victim

A magistrate shot a straight arrow figuratively at a repeat Central Queensland domestic violence perpetrator, saying his manipulative offending has been “going on and on for years”.

A man who used “continued emotional manipulation” against his domestic violence victim, has been given a jail sentence in Gladstone Magistrates Court. Generic image.

A Central Queensland man who used “continued emotional manipulation” against his domestic violence victim, has been given a jail sentence.

The man pleaded guilty in Gladstone Magistrates Court to contravening a domestic violence order (aggravated offence).

This was the sixth time he had been dealt with in court for DV offending since 2018.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Merrilyn Hoskins said the man’s latest offending on January 18, while he was on a suspended sentence, involved him telling the female aggrieved: “I need you to want me again - you’re the one driving me to kill myself.”

The court heard the man also told the woman: “I’m coming to Gladstone to f*** up my life or die on the way.”

Gladstone Courthouse.

The man had a two-page criminal history and Sgt Hoskins took Magistrate Mary Buchanan through his previous DV offending which included an incident in 2024 where he said to the same female victim: “I’m sitting here with a knife ready to take my life. Goodbye...”

The prosecutor said just a month prior to that, the man went to the woman’s home and made threats to self-harm with a knife.

Sgt Hoskins said in 2021, the man threatened to burn the woman’s house down, and some years prior during a DV incident he threw her phone into a garden.

Solicitor Jun Pepito said the man and the woman had children together and he was employed.

Magistrate Buchanan described the man’s latest offending as “continued emotional manipulation” and added it had been “going on and on for years.”

She activated the suspended sentence and imposed a four-month jail sentence with immediate parole.

A conviction was recorded.

Originally published as Central Qld man sentenced for emotional manipulation of DV victim