A number of people are living in fear their family member's partner will carry out violent threats he made to them over the phone.
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Douglas John Farquhar pleaded guilty at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Monday to making a number of threatening phone calls to his partner's family members.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Steve Kent said Farqhuar made threats to bash a victim, cut off another victim's arm and come around to their house to kill them and chop their head off.
He left messages with another of his partner's family members saying she was a 'junkie', 'rat' and the 'whole town would get her'.
Farquhar told another family member 'nobody will miss an old mole like her' and that he would kill her and 'you're all dead'.
The court heard Farquhar was on three counts of bail at the time of the offending.
The affected family members were concerned the accused would carry out his violent threats.
- Leading Senior Constable Steve Kent, police prosecutor
He was arrested in September 2021.
"The affected family members were concerned the accused would carry out his violent threats," Leading Senior Constable Kent said.
"He has knowledge of their contact details and addresses despite not having met in person."
Defence lawyer Nikhil Sood said it was conceded the offending was serious considering the 'abhorrent language used' and the fear he caused to the family members.
He said the messages were sent in response to symptoms of complex post traumatic stress disorder which had degraded his ability to reason and made him prone to angry, reckless behaviour.
Mr Sood said Farquhar had no real intention to follow through on the threats.
"I am quite sure the family didn't appreciate that," Magistrate Hugh Radford said.
Farquhar was sentenced to one year imprisonment with 134 days already served, to be followed by a 12-month community corrections order.
"The offending was extremely serious over a short period of time," Mr Radford said.
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