A woman is accused of continually sending messages to a UFS employee despite a personal safety intervention order and being on bail for stalking charges against the same person.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Denise Hancock appeared via video link from the police cells at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Monday to make an application for bail, after she was arrested on Saturday.
Police informant First Constable Dean Kempers said Hancock left several phone messages at UFS headquarters over a month at the end of 2021 about the protected person.
He said harassing emails containing the same content were also consistently sent to numerous police stations around Ballarat and directly to himself.
First Constable Kempers said Hancock had also sent emails to the Chief Commissioner's office.
That person is entitled to their personal safety and to be free of harassment.
- Magistrate Hugh Radford
The court heard police executed a search warrant at Hancock's address on January 15 and found several mobile phones and a notepad containing several email addresses that were used to send the content.
There were allegedly applications on the phone to mask the device's IP address so the emails were unable to be traced.
First Constable Kempers said he believed Hancock would continue to call UFS and send emails to police if released on bail.
Representing herself, Hancock said she needed to be released on bail because she had a sick dog that needed medication and she denied the offending.
Magistrate Hugh Radford said the prosecution case was strong and the charge of stalking carried a significant term of imprisonment.
"There is an ongoing and obvious risk to the victim in this matter," he said.
"It is a continuing and constant course of conduct despite the fact there are bail conditions and other measures put in place.
"That person is entitled to their personal safety and to be free of harassment.
"Unfortunately for you at this stage, custody is the best place to prevent you from breaching bail conditions."
Hancock was denied bail and will return to court in February.
If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.