By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A MAN smiled and uttered, “Thank God, yes” as a court slapped him with a five-year intervention order to protect his ex-partner and her two children.
Bashkim Gashi, 33, was accused of twice choking the ex-partner in her home in defiance of an earlier full intervention order.
At the time, he was serving a community corrections order for pulling an imitation shotgun and threatening to kill a mechanic who he believed was having an affair with his ex-partner.
The strangulation incidents dramatically increased the risk of a future homicide or further serious harm, magistrate Jack Vandersteen noted at the 2 May hearing as the ex-partner looked on from the gallery.
Mr Vandersteen noted Gashi had been little deterred by his jail stint or community corrections order for family violence-related offences.
In a sentence indication, the magistrate offered Gashi an 18-month jail term – with a six-month non-parole period – if the accused pleaded guilty to all charges.
The offences included disqualified driving, assault, intentionally causing injury, as well as criminal damage for allegedly shattering a glass cake holder at a Narre Warren kebab outlet.
Gashi had pushed the holder on the floor after complaining that the food he’d consumed was frozen and demanding free chips.
During a police interview over the incident, he showed no remorse and made jokes, the court was told.
He refused to answer questions properly, reverting to the retort: “My name is Jeff.”
Gashi was accused of six breaches of an intervention order since October by attending the ex-partner’s Noble Park house.
On one occasion, Gashi allegedly threw a glass against a wall, headbutted the victim’s face and nose and pushed her backwards causing her head to hit the wall, police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Kerryn Steyn told the court.
The victim believed her nose was broken and she’d been in pain for two months following the incident.
In April, Gashi allegedly pushed the ex-partner into a glass sliding door, grabbed her by the neck and tightened until she couldn’t breathe, the court was told.
She was lifted off the ground and her nose was bitten progressively harder by the accused.
When she saw her bloodied face in the mirror, she at first believed part of her punctured nose had been bitten off, the court heard.
On 24 April, the ex-partner was washing her hands in a bathroom when she saw Gashi standing behind her in a mirror.
He covered her mouth with his hands, demanding the return of his mobile phone.
He allegedly dragged her out of the toilet backwards, grabbing her by the throat and put a hand over her mouth to prevent her screaming.
Gashi had been subject to an intervention order since entering the mechanic’s workplace and threatening him with an imitation firearm last year.
He was jailed for 140 days and put on a 12-month community corrections order.
Gashi had married his ex-partner in an Islamic ceremony not recognised under Australian law. It was his first significant relationship, his lawyer said.
The court heard the accused used significant amounts of alcohol and cannabis during the relationship.
Gashi’s lawyer said the accused pleaded guilty to the driving and criminal damage charges but contested the recent family violence-related offences.
Gashi rejected the sentence indication and elected to contest the charges at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 31 May.
