In an unusual move, a prosecutor said the breached suspended jail term need not be enforced because without the man’s admissions the police didn’t have a case. 

Justin Mark Beaumont, 34, appeared in Ballarat Magistrates Court yesterday where he pleaded guilty to charges including unlawful assault and intentionally damaging property.

The court heard that Beaumont’s parents had initially called police on the evening of May 20 this year because their son was becoming abusive.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Steve Kent said Beaumont was heard screaming from nearby bushland while his parents spoke with police, and made threats he would assault his father once they were gone.

Upon police leaving, Beaumont returned home, smashing items in his bungalow and breaking the rear sliding door of the house by headbutting it.

Then he assaulted his father, before being wrestled to the ground by his brother and father until police arrived.

But the twist came when Senior Constable Kent said police were in support of a breached seven-month jail term not being activated.

He said that with Beaumont’s parents exercising their right not to give evidence against their son, the case was weak without Beaumont’s admissions.

Defence lawyer Scott Belcher said his client had decided to plead guilty “as a mark of respect and maturity”.

Magistrate John O’Callaghan fined Beaumont $5000 and extended the seven-month suspended sentence for another year.