by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Narre Warren man who smashed his way into his mother’s family home with a sledgehammer and threatened to kill her over a money dispute has faced sentence.
The 25-year-old father defied bail, community corrections and family violence intervention orders as he repeatedly hammered the Wantirna home’s rear glass and security doors about 3.39am on 1 December 2023.
According to a prosecution summary at the Victorian County Court, the mother – who was home with the man’s two younger brothers – was awoken by smashing glass.
She was terrified to discover her son with a sledgehammer at the back door, and locked herself in her bedroom, the prosecution alleged.
The intruder kicked in his mother’s bedroom door with steel-capped boots and raised the sledgehammer as if he would hit her, the summary stated.
“Put the money in my account. It is two weeks before Christmas. I will kill you,” he allegedly said.
“I’ll burn the f***ing house down next time.”
He left and the mother transferred the demanded $492 into his account.
She told police she was “petrified” of the man.
“If he gets hold of me he will kill me.
“I feel like my kids are going to be taken from me because I cannot protect them against (him).”
On the man’s arrest at his home that day, police discovered an imitation gun in his bedroom. He denied he’d been at his mother’s house.
He later pleaded guilty in court to aggravated burglary, property damage, threatening to kill, assault with a weapon, possessing an imitation gun and contravening a family violence intervention order.
In sentencing on 3 February, Judge Scott Johns said the “terrifying episode” must be denounced.
It was all the more serious due to being family violence and in breach of court orders, he said.
In her victim impact statement, the mother said she thought it might have been her and her sons’ “last moments on Earth” during the attack.
Since then, the family were reluctant to leave their house.
One of the boys stated his stomach dropped seeing his mother “shaking with absolute fear” on the night.
Judge Johns noted that the man, now 26, was in a “far more stable situation” now with “reasonable” rehabilitation prospects.
The accused man had a difficult childhood, with ADHD, trouble fitting in at school and early drug and alcohol use.
Methamphetamine had been taken as an illicit self-medication for ADHD – which was not an uncommon submission at court, Judge Johns said.
After his arrest, the man spent a “salutary” first-time in remand of six months, and then complied “to a large extent” with CISP bail conditions.
During that time, he’d been medicated while abstaining from illicit drugs.
However despite this “very positive step”, his victims remained in fear, the judge noted.
The man was jailed for 197 days – already served in pre-sentence custody – and put on a 30-month community correction order.
The CCO includes 150 hours of unpaid work, as well as supervision and treatment.
He remains subject to a family violence intervention order.
Star News has chosen not to name the man, in order to avoid identifying the victims.
