Tradie David John Davis O’Meara pleads guilty to threatening ex

A former tradie who claims to hate violence thanks to his upbringing in an abusive household has now himself threatened the mother of his children in a series of chilling texts.

David John Davis O’Meara leaves Gympie Magistrates Court on Tuesday April 1, 2025, after pleading guilty to using a phone service to menace or harass.

A one-time tradie who claims to hate violence has narrowly avoided jail after threatening to burn down the house and kill the mother of his own children.

David John Davis O’Meara faced Gympie Magistrates Court on Tuesday, April 1 over the series of threats towards his former partner sent five months earlier on November 10, 2024.

The court heard these messages included threats to “burn down the house” and kill her.

Defence lawyer Kim Turvey told the court the 37-year-old father of three from Two Mile, Gympie, grew up in an abusive household, an experience which left a mark.

“He hates violence … and he’s entirely disappointed with the messages he sent,” Ms Turvey said.

She told the court O’Meara started using cannabis before he was a teenager and was given meth “against his will” when he was in his teens.

David John Davis O’Meara leaves Gympie Magistrates Court on Tuesday April 1, 2025, after pleading guilty to using a phone service to menace or harass.

The court heard he spent time making roof trusses, but this career fell by the wayside as he had been in and out of prison for about six years.

He suffered from homelessness for an extended time and had broken into shops to steal food, she said.

Ms Turvey said O’Meara had been diagnosed with anxiety, depression and schizophrenia, may possibly be bipolar, and had been drinking excessively at the time he made the threats.

She said he had not touched alcohol since then.

Magistrate Bevan Hughes told the 37-year-old he was doing himself “no favours” as “alcohol and mental health issues do not mix”.

Mr Hughes told O’Meara “people go to prison for this type of behaviour”.

However he noted although O’Meara had “five pages of (criminal) history” he had “nothing significant since 2012” and suffered from mental health and drinking issues, he said jail was not an appropriate sentence in his case.

He accepted O’Meara’s guilty plea to a count of using a phone service to menace or harass, and sentenced him to 12 months’ probation.

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Originally published as Tradie David John Davis O’Meara pleads guilty to threatening ex