By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A 21-YEAR-OLD Pakenham ice user has been arrested on his way to rehab after his alleged persistent breaching of a family violence intervention order, a court was told.
The unemployed man was accused of stalking and harassment of his ex-partner less than two days after receiving CREDIT bail on 24 similar charges at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 27 August.
He was arrested in Pakenham and faced magistrate Jack Vandersteen for a second time in a week on Monday (31 August).
“I made it very clear to him what would happen to him if he breached the orders (while on bail),” Mr Vandersteen said.
After the magistrate rejected the man’s bail application on Monday, the man appeared pale and unsteady on his feet.
Mr Vandersteen asked him: “Are you feeling well at the moment?”
“No,” the man replied.
Constable Ross Williams, of Cardinia Family Violence Unit, told the court that the man knocked and tried to open the front door of his ex-partner’s Pakenham house at 1.30am on 29 August.
From indoors, the victim allegedly saw the man using his mobile phone, then received seven ‘private number’ missed calls.
On the eighth call, she answered the phone.
She identified the laughing caller as the accused, but couldn’t decipher his speech.
When police attended, there was no sign of the accused – though they found his sister’s vehicle parked in the street and a copy of a letter given to the accused by the victim.
In arguing for bail, defence lawyer Nadine Daniel said the accused attended his one CREDIT bail appointment last week, and did not admit to the most recent charges.
The man, who had drug and mental health issues, was set to start a one-month stay at a southern Melbourne rehab centre that day, Ms Daniel said.
The centre was supervised 24/7, secured with locked doors, windows and CCTV – and never had an absconder, the court was told.
The father, who is also a teacher, said he had wished to have his son immediately put into rehab after last week’s bail hearing.
He said the man was arrested just as they were leaving to drop him off at rehab.
The man had been previously convicted for breaching intervention orders against the same ex-partner in 2014 and 2015.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said the man posed an unacceptable risk to the complainant’s safety.
“The complainant’s view is she’s scared for her own safety and there’s been a persistence by you in (breaching).
“There’s no suggestion that it’s drug abuse. It’s an issue of behaviour where you’re not complying with court orders.”
