A man accused of organising a series of threatening letters to be sent to a number of Ballarat people has been committed to stand trial in the Victorian County Court.
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Darren Wilson pleaded not guilty to 14 charges including making a threat to kill at the end of a one-day committal hearing at the Ballarat Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
Four civilian witnesses gave evidence during the hearing, including Wilson’s former partner, who told the court she received letters threatening her if she did not “get back with” the accused.
“I tried to get away from him, but he followed me everywhere. The letters went on for years,” she said.
“I was petrified of him.”
She also told the court she remembered Wilson coming to her house in 2009 and asking to get back together, but when she said no he told her he was “going to cause a lot of trouble” for her with “big people in town”.
The woman told the court letters were sent to local bikie groups falsely signed in her name demanding a ransom or their clubhouse would be blown up.
“If they thought (the letters were written by her) I wouldn’t be here today,” she said.
A retired man who knew Wilson admitted to writing a number of letters, but said he only did so because he was threatened.
“I wrote it because I thought he would bash me or even kill me,” he told the court.
“… he told me what to write. I cannot remember how many he got me to write.”
While she never saw any letters, an associate of Wilson’s said he told her he had someone write letters for him and “would often talk about having (his former partner) bumped off because she rejected him”.
It is alleged some of the letters contained bullets, while others threatened rape if ransoms were not paid.
Wilson was ordered to appear in the County Court at Ballarat on November 8 for a directions hearing.
A date for his trial will be set at a later stage.