Adam Howard sentenced in Forster court for breaching AVO
The son of a Mid-North Coast councillor and prominent businessman has been sentenced for sending a barrage of manipulative texts to his ex-girlfriend after discovering she had become involved with his cousin.
The son of a Mid-North Coast councillor and prominent businessman has been sentenced for sending a barrage of manipulative texts to his ex-girlfriend after discovering she had become involved with his cousin.
Adam Howard, the son of MidCoast Councillor and cinema operator Peter Howard, was sentenced in Forster Local Court on Friday for contravening an apprehended domestic violence order.
In November Howard had attempted to have the matter dealt with under the mental health system.
Howard’s lawyer conceded he had sent an “inordinate” number of messages but urged Magistrate Allison Hawkins to divert the matter from the criminal system and for it to be dealt with under the mental health system – under Section 14 of the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020 NSW.
He has been seeing a psychologist fortnightly to help with his behaviour and has “no intention of relaxing that regime,” his lawyer told the court at the time.
But Ms Hawkins said his behaviour went “above and beyond any mental health condition”.
The court heard that on one occasion he sent 70 messages in one day.
Ms Hawkins said Howard was “manipulative - pulling at emotional levers” and reminded him that an AVO is “not just a piece of paper” .
She rejected the application to divert the matter and Howard formally entered a guilty plea to the charge of contravening an apprehended domestic violence order.
According to police facts tendered in court Howard discovered his ex-partner had become involved with his cousin which prompted him to send the barrage of texts.
The repeated contact was in contravention of an existing apprehended domestic violence order designed to protect her from him, it was heard in court.
“The breach was not a one-off, it was essentially a bombardment,” the police prosecutor told the court during the unsuccessful application to have the matter diverted to the mental health system.
On Friday Ms Hawkins formally convicted him of the offence and sentenced Howard to a 15-month community corrections order.
He will be supervised by a community corrections officer and must participate in any program deemed necessary including the Men’s Behavioural Change Program.
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Originally published as Adam Howard sentenced in Forster court for breaching AVO
