By JESSE GRAHAM
A BELGRAVE man was handed a fine and a stern lecture after breaching an intervention order against his ex-partner last year, in a court hearing last week.
On Monday, 29 February, the 39-year-old man fronted Ringwood Magistrates’ Court to answer a charge of breaching an intervention order against his de facto ex-partner.
The police prosecutor said that, on 10 December last year, the man was at the Belgrave Heights Convention Centre for their child’s Christmas concert, where he confronted his ex-partner.
“On the stairs of the convention centre, both parties’ paths had crossed, when the accused started yelling verbal abuse at the victim, calling her a ‘heartless bitch’ in front of other parents in the vicinity,” the officer read.
He said the man then continued to hurl abuse at the victim in the car park, until she left in a car.
The man’s legal representative argued that the context of the incident was important, and that the breach of the intervention order was not his being at the concert, but the incident on the stairs.
He said the man’s child was with the victim was at the concert, and that this “may have contributed to his angst” – but that he acknowledged his actions were wrong, and was pleading guilty.
“He acknowledges it was completely inappropriate, your honour – that’s why he’s been upfront with the police that he did the wrong thing,” the lawyer said in the hearing.
Magistrate Jillian Crowe scolded the man for his behaviour, and said the couple’s daughter, who was six, would have been “distressed” by witnessing the incident.
MsCrowe said that, if the man wanted to see his daughter, he could pursue the matter legally.
“If she is withholding contact with your child, there are lawful ways to go about it – and that’s what you have to do,” she said.
“It’s not about you, it’s about your daughter.
“She’s going to have a relationship with you and her mother, and her new boyfriends, and your new girlfriends – this is life, and you’ve got to find a way to deal with it.”
Ms Crowe issued $500 fine for the breach, and warned the man that another breach would see the matter go “right up the scale” towards more severe penalties.
