By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A DOVETON disability pensioner who pleaded guilty to threatening to kill his de facto partner and deliberately scalding her with boiling coffee has been told by a magistrate he faces jail.
Gordon Austin, 50, and heavily addicted to cannabis, was also accused of punching his partner for 23 years, in the face on two separate occasions, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court heard on 11 July.
Last year, he allegedly struck her to the face with his walking stick during an argument.
He then forced her to lie down with his stick, put a pillow over her head and rammed his knee into her head.
On 12 June, Austin told her he was kicking her out and threw her clothes out in the hallway. He microwaved a cup of coffee to a hot temperature and screamed that he’d hurl it on her face.
Austin then threw it on her leg, burning and blistering her through her pants.
On 7 July, Austin accused the victim of seeing another man. He grabbed her by the hair, threw her against a wall, and spat in her face.
“You haven’t seen anything yet. I’ll kill you,” he told her.
The partner’s sister picked her up that day as Austin screamed at her. She told her sister she was too anxious to sleep and was afraid that Austin would kill her.
Austin was arrested on 10 July, the same day that the sister reported him to Dandenong police.
He was found with 45 grams of cannabis in zip-lock bags. He showed no remorse, and was aggressive towards police, the court was told.
Austin had previously been charged with violence against his partner in 2010. He had been on a community corrections order during some of his recent offences.
Austin’s lawyer said the accused believed the charges, particularly the hot coffee incident, were “trumped up” by the partner.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen told a twitching, cursing Austin to “just be quiet” on one occasion during the hearing.
The lawyer explained his client – who had recently started using ice as well as cannabis – was in a “highly distressed state” in the court.
“He’s not seeking to be difficult.”
Mr Vandersteen, noting a picture of the victim’s blistered leg, said it was just a matter of “how long” Austin would spend in jail.
“Imagine if you committed one of these acts on a person in the street?
“The risk to the victim is high because of the multiple assaults on her.”
Mr Vandersteen handed down a four-year full intervention order protecting the partner from Austin.
The accused will be sentenced on 5 September, pending a psychiatric report.
