Jonathon Lee: Invermay DV thug sentenced for violent assaults

Withdrawing from drugs and freshly unemployed, a young Tasmanian man assaulted his partner three times in three months, including once where he drew a knife and stabbed her belongings.

Tasmanian domestic violence offender Jonathon James Lee, 26. Picture: Facebook

Withdrawing from drugs and freshly unemployed, a young Tasmanian man assaulted his partner three times in three months, including once where he drew a knife and stabbed her belongings.

Invermay man Jonathon James Lee, 26, a tyre technician who works at St Leonards, was sentenced in Launceston Magistrates Court on Wednesday after previously pleading guilty to eight offences. He pleaded not guilty to a ninth, receiving stolen property.

Most seriously, Lee admitted to assaulting his partner on three occasions, destroying her property twice, and emotionally abusing/intimidating her.

He also drove while disqualified and failed to appear.

Magistrate Simon Brown sentenced him to 10 weeks’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for two years, conditional upon Lee entering into a 12-month community correction order and performing 49 hours’ community service.

The assaults were committed between November 2021 – February 2022, the court was told.

On the first occasion, Lee, who had lost his job earlier that day, and his partner were driving when she confronted him with allegations he had returned to consuming drugs, namely methamphetamine and cannabis.

Lee denied this and grabbed her by the hair, holding her head down until she told him who the friend who informed on him was.

On February 2 last year, the pair were again driving when they became involved in an argument, during which Lee called her a “dumb slut” and “useless bitch,” the court was told.

The woman pulled the car over after becoming upset, at which point Lee exited the vehicle, picked up a chunk of firewood and hurled it at her through the driver’s window. He subsequently smashed her mobile phone.

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Five days later, on February 7, Lee woke his partner up as she slept on the couch and, following an argument, he pushed and held her against a wall, leaving her “intimidated and scared,” then retrieved a large, sheathed knife.

He used the sheathed blade to slap her on the arm, then unsheathed the knife and stabbed the bag she was packing to leave three times.

Defence lawyer Hannah Goss submitted on Lee’s behalf that her client had no previous convictions for domestic violence and, at the time of the offending, he was “withdrawing from what had been a period of time using illicit substances, particularly meth”.

She described him as “industrious,” with a good work history, and said he expressed insight into his offending, as captured in a pre-sentence report previously ordered by the court, and “strong expressions of remorse”.

“He accepts he has hurt the complainant and his behaviour would have made her scared,” Ms Goss said.

She noted that Lee had not used illicit drugs since last year.

Mr Brown, the magistrate, said Lee had “behaved appallingly” and described domestic violence as a “ghastly social evil” that makes “misery of people’s lives”.

In addition to his sentence, Lee was ordered to pay costs and levies of $568.40 and compensation to his former partner for her destroyed belongings.

He will return to court on August 31 for a hearing into the charge of receiving stolen property.