Inside Geelong’s most bizarre crimes
From odd misdeeds to strange motives, Geelong courts are full of bizarre criminals. SEE WHO MADE THE LIST.
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Whether it’s strange criminal plots, odd threats or “unusual” behaviour, there is no shortage of bizarre crimes in Geelong.
Over several emails, Geelong man Dale Jonathan Western, 42, claimed he was a soldier who served in Afghanistan and told his victim he and his Australian Defence Force friends were prepared for serious violence if the man did not cough up $8000.
While a bizarre enough threat already, Western’s blackmail only got stranger when the County Court of Victoria heard he connected with his victim by telling him he was interested in bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadochism and masochism.
The BDSM community is devoted to a type of sexual activity that generally relates to control and domination over one or more partners.
Western’s girlfriend was part of this community and sent BDSM photographs of herself to the victim – who she had been involved with for six years before meeting Western in early 2021.
When sentencing Western, who pleaded guilty, Judge Pardeep Tiwana labelled his offending “unusual”.
Western is just one example of some of the weird crimes committed by Geelong residents who have faced court in the last 12 months.
Hoppers Crossing man James Leaf, who was living around Armstrong Creek at the time, subjected his ex-girlfriend to terrifying stalking, criminal damages and threats to her colleagues at Lorraine Starr.
Leaf broke into her home to destroy one of her vibrators, steal her hair extensions and clothes, and left faeces in her fridge.
Leaf, who pleaded guilty in the Geelong Magistrates Court in August last year, also left a firearm, rope and cable ties around her home.
For some of Geelong’s criminals, the way they were caught by police and brought before the courts for their crimes was strange.
For example, Jesse Hundhammer, 22, pleaded guilty in the Geelong Magistrates Court to nine charges of using a mobile phone while driving and 37 charges of losing traction while driving.
Police were put onto Hundhammer’s trail because he posted videos of his offending onto his public TikTok profile.
Magistrate Michelle Hodgson said it was “really selfish” behaviour.
“You quite deliberately flouted the road rules, you have bragged about them, (and) you have done it quite openly on social media. That is of real concern,” Ms Hodgson said during sentencing.
Here we go into more of Geelong’s strangest crimes.
DALE JONATHAN WESTERN
A Geelong man posed as an Australian soldier with a fetish for kinky sex so he could blackmail his girlfriend’s ex-partner.
In June 2021, Brandon Smith (not his real name) got an email from Geelong man Dale Jonathan Western, 42, who said he was involved with the Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sadochism and Masochism (BDSM) community.
Using a false name, Western sent Mr Smith invitations to meet him and his “submissive” – someone who gives up control to “dominant” partners in a sexual context – and convinced him to send images.
After an “angry and threatening” phone call on 29 June, Western began to blackmail Mr Smith.
Western appeared in the County Court of Victoria this month and pleaded guilty to the blackmail charge.
JAMES LEAF
A Geelong man who said he would “pop off” his ex-girlfriend broke into her house and stole hair extensions and sex toys.
James Leaf, 42, who is now living in Hoppers Crossing but was linked to Armstrong Creek and Grovedale, faced the Geelong Magistrates Court in August 2022 and pleaded guilty to charges of assault, stalking, burglary and criminal damage.
In December 2021, after his ex-girlfriend blocked his number, Leaf let himself into her Newtown home and stole several items, including sex toys, her blonde hair extensions and a dress.
He later broke in again to destroy her vibrators and scatter threatening material around the house, including rope and cable ties.
Leaf also placed a bag of faeces in her fridge.
JESSE HUNDHAMMER
A series of videos posted to TikTok to “one up” his mates tipped police off to a hoon driver terrorising Colac and Geelong streets.
Posted under hashtags like #BlackLinesMatter and #F---TheCops, Colac man Jesse Hundhammer, 22, was captured on several TikTok videos performing burnouts at all hours of the night.
Hundhammer appeared in the Geelong Magistrates Court in February this year and pleaded guilty to nine charges of using a mobile phone while driving and 37 charges of losing traction.
After being tipped off by a viewer of his TikTok account, police found more than 30 videos of Hundhammer’s erratic and dangerous driving on public roads between January and August 2021.
In some videos, Hundhammer performed burnouts close to an unknown man, exposing him to risk of death or serious injury.
JESSEY FRITH
A Geelong man and woman lured their victim with a sex-for-money plot so they could rob him at gun point.
The victim was forced to hand over his wallet and withdraw cash from an ATM at Corio Village when Jessey James Frith pulled an imitation gun on him and threatened to shoot him in the knees.
Frith, 23, pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery, one charge of possessing a firearm as a prohibited person and one charge of theft of a motor vehicle in the County Court in December last year.
A co-accused woman met the victim on a social media app in December 2021 and set up an arrangement where she would have sexual intercourse with the victim in exchange for money.
The same day, the woman met the victim at her Corio home and introduced Frith to him as her brother.
LEISHA APPLEYARD
A woman caught breaking into a car told police it’s “what you do in Norlane” before she threw an egg at an officer.
Leisha Appleyard, 34, pleaded guilty at the Geelong Magistrates Court in mid-October last year to attempting to steal from a motor vehicle and assaulting a police officer.
In December 2020, police saw Appleyard inside a vehicle parked at a North Shore carpark as three others stood outside.
When asked by police what she was doing in the car, Appleyard told them she was “looking for coins and s---“.
“It’s what you do in Norlane,” she told officers.
BEN COTTER
A magistrate has told a Geelong man who spent $45,000 of his “vulnerable” and elderly mother’s money on online relationships over a year that he should be “ashamed of himself”.
Between October 2020 and April 2021, Ben Cotter was living with his mother and assisting her with her healthcare needs while making several large payments on her credit card.
His defence lawyer, Hilary Russell, told the Geelong Magistrates Court in January this year that Cotter was using the money on “online relationships” he turned to during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ms Russell said Cotter, who pleaded guilty, “experienced significant obesity” during this time and was struggling with the pandemic.
Magistrate Franz Holzer said it was “disgraceful behaviour”.
KENISHA WHISTANCE
A Geelong woman started a bloody brawl at a pub in the city’s CBD after telling another woman she was going to defecate in her shoes.
Kenisha Whistance, 24, threw a drink and then lunged at two women at The Inn Hotel in Corio St, sparking a violent brawl which ended in both victims bruised and bloody.
She pleaded guilty to the assault charges and making a threat to kill at the Geelong Magistrates Court in October 2022.
Police said the brawl began when Whistance and a co-accused woman were “loitering” outside the bathroom and told to hurry.
Annoyed, Whistance said: “Maybe I need to take a s---, maybe I’ll s--- in your shoes”.
BARON HODGKINS
A man who stood outside the Ocean Grove police station and told officers he had a machine gun was “screaming out for help”.
Baron Hodgkins, 52, appeared via custody link at the Geelong Magistrates Court in June 2022 and pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer, being drunk in public and breaching parole conditions.
In October 2021, Hodgkins spooked Ocean Grove residents who saw him running between cars and he was arrested by police.
While being held in the station cells to sober up, Hodgkins smeared his faeces on the wall.
In May 2022, officers reported receiving a call from Hodgkins who told them he was outside the Ocean Grove police station with a machine gun and that he wanted to be remanded to the cells.
TRAVIS STAHL
A Newcomb man who left his bag in a taxi and walked away without paying the $20 fare ended up facing firearm charges when the driver found shotgun shells and a homemade gun inside.
Travis Stahl’s costly decision to leave the taxi after it dropped him in front of his Andrews St home in June 2018 led to police discovering the homemade firearm and several loose shotgun shells inside the duffel bag he abandoned in the back seat of the cab.
The driver tried to return the bag a week later but when no one was home, he and his girlfriend searched inside and found the shells.
Stahl, 36, pleaded guilty to the firearm charges, obtaining financial advantage by deception and driving under the influence of methylamphetamine in the Geelong Magistrates Court last month.
DEAN BOULT
A St Leonards movie buff who rushed to his neighbour’s aid with a replica Blade Runner gun faced court.
Dean Boult, 52, appeared at the Geelong Magistrates Court in July 2022 and pleaded guilty to possessing an imitation firearm.
In 2021, Boult and his partner heard his neighbours in a domestic dispute and ran outside their St Leonard’s house.
At the time, Boult was in possession of an imitation firearm that the neighbours later told police had left them “scared for their life”.
His lawyer, Aleisha McCarron, said it was a replica from the 1982 movie ‘Blade Runner’ and was purchased from online store Wish.
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Originally published as Inside Geelong’s most bizarre crimes
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