A MAN told his estranged wife he would slowly and painfully kill her and her new partner, “because it used to be what I did for a living”, a court has heard.Michael Luka, 45, from Rowville, became jealous when his ex-partner began seeing someone else in the weeks leading up to September this year, on one occasion threatening her with a 20 centimetre knife in Buninyong and making up a list of rules for her to follow.“The first rule was that he called her new partner ... threatening to kill him, before demanding the victim get on the phone to tell him to (expletive) off,” police prosecutor Senior Constable Michelle Burnett told Ballarat Magistrates Court yesterday.“The second rule was that she did whatever he told her and how he told her to do it.“The third was that she would not leave the house unless it was to go to work, and that she write down her odometer so as not to deviate from the addresses.”Luka also told his estranged wife that if she contacted police he would kill all her animals, wait for the police, and then start shooting at them.Senior Constable Burnett said, on another occasion the victim was being followed by Luka, then stopped and wound down her window to question him about it.She said Luka told the woman: “Your time on earth is not going to be long and when I do kill you both it won’t be quickly, it will be slow and painful because it used to be what I did for a living.”“I know where you are staying ‘cause I followed you all day yesterday. I know all about (your partner). He is a dead man.”Luka yesterday pleaded guilty to unlawful and injurious imprisonment, extortion, and two counts of making a threat to kill.His defence said Luka was petrified of being put back into custody after already serving 17 days, describing the two-and-a-half weeks as a “harsh reality check”.Supported by his mother and step-brother in court, Luka also tendered a letter from his first wife to the magistrate, which claimed his offending was out of character.Magistrate Terry Wilson sentenced Luka to 17 days in prison, which was cancelled out by time already served, as well as a further four months suspended for 12 months.“There is something unstable about your behaviour,” Mr Wilson said. “You need firstly to examine yourself in terms of new relationships with women ... and whether you’re even ready for that.“Yours is a very serious example of a making a threat to kill carried out in the company of other offences.”