By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A 54-year-old man said he was getting “too old” for facing the justice system after allegedly threatening his partner with a machete in a Casey boarding house’s backyard.
The man, who lived in a separate room from his partner, threatened her after she refused to give him her room key to get his belongings on 23 January, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told.
The complainant sought refuge from the man, who was on a community corrections order at the time.
A Corrections officer told the court that the man had a “history of violence”.
The man had committed family violence against a different victim in a shower in 2015, in which he was charged with recklessly causing injury, the court heard.
A defence lawyer argued the man’s corrections order should not be cancelled given his “sporadic” but “positive” engagement since August and his need for continued mental health treatment.
The man had successfully completed such an order in 2013 as well as a term of parole in 2008, the lawyer said.
The man had been “clean” of heroin since being last in custody for an armed robbery, the court was told.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said it wasn’t easy to know what to do with the man.
He noted the man had also previously breached community corrections orders and a suspended sentence.
“It is certainly not straight-forward, given his behaviour on (a community corrections order) and that he’s committed further offences.”
Mr Vandersteen said the man was right when saying that “you’re too old for it and you have to pull your head in”.
“It’s rare for someone in their fifties with your offending.”
The man was sentenced to 42 days jail – already served in pre-sentence detention.
He was put on a varied corrections order with judicial monitoring, supervision, drug testing and mental health treatment.
Mr Vandersteen said he would have jailed the man for eight months if not for his guilty plea.
