Fined $3500 for breaching order

By Tania Martin
FORMER Olinda man, Derek Erskine, 35, last Wednesday pleaded guilty to one count of breaching an intervention order in the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court.
Erskine was found guilty and fined $3500 without conviction and ordered to pay $415 in witness costs.
The court heard Erskine harassed former Olinda lover Michelle Paige, 42, over a six-month period.
More serious charges of stalking, threats to kill and assault with a weapon were dropped.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Lee Hare told the court Erskine harassed Ms Paige between 31 April and 31 October last year. The couple split in 2007.
The pair had been in a relationship since 2001 and ran a business together in Olinda.
Magistrate James Cashmore warned Erskine he faced two years jail and a $24,000 fine.
“This is a very serious case,” Mr Cashmore said.
Leading Sen Const Hare said an intervention order was taken out against Erskine on 8 April 2008 to stop him approaching, assaulting or harassing Ms Paige.
He said the victim believed Erskine followed her as she drove to a party in Monbulk along Mt Dandenong Tourist Road last June.
“She was scared and said she tried to lose him,” he said.
“She had thought she had lost him only to find the defendant had found her in Main Street Monbulk.”
Leading Sen Const Hare said the victim was so concerned for her safety she caught a taxi home as a diversion.
He said Erskine rang the victim’s business phone two months later and ‘ranted’ and questioned why she would not marry him, calling back four times after Ms Paige hung up.
In September Erskine promised to make Ms Paige’s life hell and be her ‘worst enemy’. He said he would ‘destroy her financially and get his revenge’.
Lead Sen Const Hare said Erskine drove past the victim’s Olinda store on 29 October and pointed his hand in a pistol-like manner.
But defence counsel Naomi Smith said Erskine completely denied this.
He claimed he was waving at a fellow local who was sitting at a nearby coffee shop.
Leading Sen Const Hare said the victim feared for her life and safety.
“Every time she left her home she was looking to see if he was there … she had to change her daily habits and routine,” he said.
Ms Smith said Erskine accepted the relationship break-up was messy.
“But he was in love with her (Ms Paige) and getting mixed messages,” she said.
Ms Smith said the whole incident had impacted significantly on Erskine’s life.
She said he had to move away from the area, which had been a major source of income.
Ms Smith presented a number of statements that said Erskine’s behaviour was out of character and surmounted to an isolated case.
But Mr Cashmore said it was hard to say that it was one isolated incident that was out of character, especially as it went on for a period of six months.