A MUSK man who hit his ex-wife in the head to “teach her a lesson” yesterday received a $1000 fine in Ballarat Magistrates Court.
Brendan Marshall, 41, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful assault.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Ivan Blomeley said Marshall was still sharing a house and care of their three-year-old twins with his ex-wife when they began arguing about household duties on July 5 last year.
When Marshall grabbed a clothes horse and tried to open it, his ex-wife grabbed it and told him they weren’t doing any washing that night.
He then hit the victim in the head near the temple, causing her to be shocked and scared and later to vomit in the backyard.
After being arrested, he kept kicking the inside of the police van and made threats to police.
When asked why he hit his wife, Marshall told police he gave her a slap to teach her a lesson.
Defence counsel Shelley Buchecker said Marshall couldn’t remember any events of the night due to being heavily intoxicated.
“He is very remorseful and it has been a wake-up call for him that he has a problem with alcohol,” Ms Buchecker said.
She said the incident was “alcohol-fuelled” and Marshall was now on a drug to curb his alcohol cravings.
Magistrate Peter Couzens said this conduct must be denounced by the courts.
“The community and the law cannot excuse, condone or treat lightly matters of domestic violence,” Mr Couzens said.
“This was the mother of your twin daughters over a dispute related to a clothes horse in which you kept telling her she deserved to be hit to the head.”
However, he said Marshall was addressing his alcohol issues.
