Daniel Jay Lawson tracked, choked and assaulted partner

A jealous man’s “need to dominate, control and instil fear” were revealed during a disturbing series of offences including installing GPS tracking devices and cheating allegations.

Domestic violence generic

A jealous man’s “need to dominate, control and instil fear” were revealed during a disturbing series of offences including installing GPS tracking devices and cheating allegations.

Daniel Jay Lawson, 31, carried out a disturbing series of offences over a number of months including tracking his partner constantly for months, installing GPS trackers on her two cars, accusing her of sleeping with other men while he was sleeping with other women, choking and assaults.

Judge Jeff Clarke said the offending was borne out of Lawson’s “jealous need to dominate, control and instil fear” in his partner by “physical, emotional and psychological abuse, threatening and coercive behaviour”.

Crown prosecutor Ryan Godfrey said Lawson exhibited coercive control over his then partner during the offending period of September to November 2021.

He said Lawson tracked the woman for months, installing GPS trackers on two of her cars which she found after her parents borrowed one of her cars and he rang her, telling her he knew where that car was located.

The woman had gone to Lawson’s residence one day to get her belongings and caught him having sex with a woman.

She yelled at him and left the room, gathering her belongings and left the house.

The court heard Lawson followed, grabbed her by the hair and threw her face down on to a concrete slab.

The second time she busted him sleeping with another woman, he chased her, choked her, hit her in the back of the head and followed her in his car.

Lawson cut her off at the Gavial Gracemere Rd and Burnett Hwy intersection – which is notorious for crashes due to hill nearby – by stopping his car in front of hers and across two lanes.

The car chase, which involved him swerving all over the road in front of her to stop her from overtaking him and him driving without headlights at night, lasted at least 55 minutes to her house in Zilzie – 57.4km from Gracemere – and she had 367 missed calls from him by the time she got home.

Daniel Jay Lawson, 31, carried out a car chase, following his then partner from Gracemere to Zilzie, cutting her off at the notoriously dangerous intersection of Gavial Gracemere Rd and Burnett Hwy, as well as swerving all over the road to stop her from passing him, while he drove at night without headlights.

Lawson also programmed his garage remote to open her garage door, so she turned off her electronic garage door opening machine to prevent him from opening it.

The court heard he slapped her when she refused to turn it back on.

Lawson choked her on another occasion when he accused her of sleeping with another man.

Due to fear from the ongoing abuse and assaults, the victim asked a male friend to sleep over on her bedroom floor one night.

Lawson assaulted that man after letting himself into her home with a key to her house, made his way to where the male friend was and punched him three times, along with ripping out chunks of his beard.

The court heard Lawson punched the friend again and he lost consciousness.

The friend had a broken eye socket and broken nose.

Defence barrister Julie Marsden said her client had been drinking excessively at the time and the presentence custody “woke him up”.

She said Lawson has a new partner with whom he has a four-month-old son with and the new partner knows of Lawson’s offending.

Ms Marsden said he had worked with his stepfather after being released from prison on presentence custody.

Judge Clarke said Lawson’s criminal record included “quite persistent offending over 10 years” including property, evading police and driving offences.

He also has a New South Wales record for negligent driving.

Lawson pleaded guilty to three counts of common assault, two of choking, one of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle aggravated by a prior conviction, and one count of assault occasioning bodily harm.

Judge Clarke ordered Lawson to a head sentence of 4.5 years prison, declared 93 days presentence custody as time served and set parole eligibility for November 6, 2024.

Originally published as Daniel Jay Lawson tracked, choked and assaulted partner