A serial perpetrator of serious family violence including threats to kill will spend 12 months behind bars.
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Adam Thomas appeared before Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday facing a number of charges including threat to kill, contravening a family violence order and unlicensed driving.
Magistrate Mark Strattmann said the offending, which included multiple threats to his ex-partner, was extremely serious and would have left the victim very scared.
The court heard Thomas texted his ex-partner and mother of his two young children more than 33 times in less than a month – breaching the conditions of a family violence order. Thomas failed to attend court ordered family violence programs and continued to send abusive text messages between October and December.
On October 20, 2016 the court heard the victim went home with the couple’s children and attempted to open the gate to the backyard when she realised it was locked from the inside. The victim called the accused and he came out of the shadows holding a baseball bat. He called the victim a “slut” and told her to “go and kill yourself”.
The court heard the victim locked herself inside her house and left her mother to look after the children at the property while the victim went to the police station. The victim’s mother was again threatened by Thomas who could be seen outside with a baseball bat. On October 21 he was served an intervention order by police.
He made full admissions to police and said in an interview “she (the victim) would’ve been scared”.
The court heard Thomas continued to send abusive messages and in one text Thomas told his ex-partner: “I have a present for you, since you went out of your way to get me bashed – I’ll do the same to you. You’re getting your head caved in. LOL”.
The court heard Thomas breached multiple orders that said he was not allowed to contact his children or ex-partner by sending abusive messages through a messaging application in December.
In the messages he said “you take two lives from me I will take yours c***” and “no f***ing cops will save you c***”.
Thomas’ defence lawyer Daniel McGlone told the court his client’s behaviour was “out of the blue” and had perhaps been spurred by the murder of his younger brother in 2015. Mr McGlone said his client’s long term relationship with his partner had collapsed after nine years, while his life had been riddled with tragedies including the death of his mother, grandfather and father.
Thomas was arrested on December 25 on driving offences after he was seen performing “skids”. He was sentenced to 12 months’ jail with much of his sentence served concurrently.
