Man, 34, who stalked, threatened ex-partner from day of release from jail returned to prison

A man who stalked his ex-partner from the moment he was released from jail pointed a gun around as he claimed he wasn’t scared of “going out” in a shootout with police.

Toowoomba Courthouse in Hume St, Toowoomba City

A 34-year-old Toowoomba man who started stalking his ex-partner and mother of his three children the very day he was released from prison has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ jail.

The man, who is not named to protect the identity of his ex-partner and their children, had a history of shocking violence against the same woman with whom he’d been with for more than a decade.

Released from custody on December 12, 2022, the man’s stalking began with threatening text messages, phone calls and in-person threats as well as contact through mutual friends in which he threatened to kill the woman if she didn’t take him back or she linked with another man, Toowoomba District Court heard.

Though he was only permitted to approach the woman and her children with her permission, he had attended her home in February 2023 when she asked him to help fix her car, Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald told the court.

The man waved the handgun about and pointed at the woman.

However, when he approached her in the shed, the man had lifted his shirt to show he had a handgun tucked into his pants before pointing the weapon around, she said.

“He said, and I quote, ‘I’m not scared, I’ll go out in a shootout with police, if you get a boyfriend he’s going to die’,” Ms Friedewald said.

Only a week or so later they had an argument over the phone and then he attended her home at night and was asked to leave.

This time he lifted his shirt to reveal a large meat cleaver in his pants and she could see the blade, she said.

He forced the woman to write a letter of support to the court in relation to contravention of the domestic violence order he committed on the day he was released from jail.

He told her: “(complainant), if you don’t write this for me I’ll kill you” and she complied out of fear, Ms Friedewald said.

The 34-year-old man pleaded guilty in Toowoomba District Court to stalking with a circumstance of aggravation.

Ms Friedewald outlined other similar incidents of domestic violence against the woman.

The man, who had spent more than a year in custody, pleaded guilty to unlawful stalking with a circumstance of aggravation.

His barrister John Davis said his client had grown up in a household with domestic violence.

However, his client had been working in prison and now intended to seek help for his mental health issues upon his release and move to Brisbane where he had the offer of work, he said.

Judge Paul Smith sentenced the man to four and a half years in jail but, declaring 358 days of presentence custody as time served, ordered he be eligible to apply for parole as of August 27, 2024.