By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
AN ENDEAVOUR Hills man has been jailed after pleading guilty to assaulting an ex-partner, trying to cut the fridge cord with a knife and throwing her sister into a cupboard in the women’s home.
The 40-year-old had raised his fist and grabbed a large knife during an argument with his ex-partner at the Dandenong residence late on 7 May, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told.
After trying to cut the fridge cord, the accused – who sported tattoos of three stars on his left cheek and writing on his neck – then stabbed a hole in the fridge door.
When the sister intervened, the man grabbed her throat and threw her with such force into the cupboard that it broke, police prosecutor Senior Constable Chris Capuano told the court on 20 June.
The accused told police at the time he was defending himself against the sister but admitted to stabbing the door “out of frustration”.
The ex-partner was protected by a limited family violence intervention order against the man at the time.
Defence lawyer Arend Slink told the court the man was reacting in self-defence due to the sister “jumping on him” though “perhaps it was not necessary to go that far”.
The man, who is treated for bi-polar, asthma and heart conditions, had been jailed previously over breaches of intervention orders.
He had been previously convicted of recklessly causing serious injury and threatening to kill.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said the man’s whole criminal history seemed related to family violence.
“You now recognise the triggers … (but) you still struggle to control your emotions.”
When anger rises, “you’ve got to reverse out of the situation you’re in”, Mr Vandersteen said.
The man was jailed for five months – less 44 days spent in remand – with a two-year supervised community corrections order including drug and mental health treatment.
