By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A court has heard a recording of blood-curdling screams and shattering glass doors in which two teenage sisters were allegedly injured by their mother’s ex-partner at a house in Harkaway.
The accused, a 32-year-old Cranbourne disability pensioner, sat impassively in the dock during the audio playback at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 8 May.
During the alleged attack, a 14-year-old girl suffered a deep five-centimetre gash to her hand from a shard of glass. She was still being treated at Dandenong Hospital a day later, the court heard.
Her 18-year-old sister was cut to the knee by glass. Their five-year-old brother was also inside the house at the time, the court was told.
About 12.30am on 7 May, the man travelled from a pub to arrive on the patio of the ex-partner’s parent’s home – where she and her three children were staying, police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Glenn Horman said.
In the audio recording there’s an exchange of shouting before the man allegedly kicked the bottom wooden frame of the glass sliding door, shattering panes of glass.
There is hysterical screaming as shards allegedly struck the ex-partner’s 14-year-old and 18-year-old daughters.
The man claimed in court that the girl was injured by putting her hand through the broken glass to “swing a knife at me”.
The man has then used a pole to smash further windows, Lead Sen Const Horman said.
Several times in the audio, a female desperately shouts “Get an ambulance“ as screams and sobbing continue.
A female is heard describing someone a “f***ing idiot”.
The man left soon afterwards, took two Valium tablets at a Berwick friend’s house and turned himself in at Narre Warren police station, the court was told.
In the days beforehand, the man had sent a series of abusive text messages to his ex-partner after a recent separation, police alleged.
She routinely ignored his texts and calls, the court heard.
Defence lawyer Nadine Daniel told the court the man didn’t go to the Harkaway house to hurt anyone, but to clarify some “loose ends”.
He didn’t expect the glass to break when he kicked the door, she said.
“He stuffed up in a pretty spectacular way.
“He created a terrifying scene for these women and that’s not what he actually planned to do.”
The man is being treated for type one diabetes, major depression, anxiety and weekly seizures. He’d been kicked out of home at 15 after standing up to a violent step-father, Ms Daniel said.
The man was prepared to plead guilty to two counts of recklessly causing injury, criminal damage and assault, but not to stalking, she said.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said he could hear the witnesses’ fear in the recording. The 14-year-old girl’s wound appeared “deep and extensive”, he said.
“The offending is serious. It would have been terrifying for the witnesses to be confronted like that by someone at their home.
“He has to serve a term of imprisonment – there’s no two ways about it.”
Mr Vandersteen offered a sentence indication: if pleading guilty, the man would be jailed for three months and serve a 12-month community corrections order.
The man was remanded in custody to appear at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 8 May for further mention.
