A Gulgong man who breached an apprehended domestic violence order (ADVO) within an hour of being served with it, by sending a threatening text message, has been sentenced to seven months imprisonment with a non-parole period of three months.
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- If you or someone you know is experiencing violence, call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) for advice or support, this free, confidential service is open 24/7.
- For urgent support call Lifeline 13 11 14.
- In an emergency, call the police on Triple-zero (000), all incidents of violence should be reported.
Nathan Leigh Woolley, of Caledonian Street, Gulgong, appeared in Mudgee Local Court via audio-visual link on Wednesday, having been refused bail since the incident.
The latest offences put the 35-year-old in breach of an intensive correction order - which wasn't set to expire until October 2021 - that he'd been sentenced to for separate charges of intimidation (domestic) and contravening an ADVO.
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According to the police facts submitted to the court for sentence, on November 21, 2020, Woolley sent a number of threatening text messages to the victim, who reported them to police.
An interim ADVO was issued and officers served it on Woolley at 4.35pm on November 24, 2020.
Then at 4.35pm that same afternoon, Woolley sent a message to the victim which said "an AVO won't help you" and "the brown dogs are lurking".
Upon reading the police facts submitted to the court, Magistrate David Day commented, "within 59 minutes of being served with the ADVO he's breached it, but that's not a record though, some are breached within minutes of being served".
Magistrate Day went on to say that while this charge would be a relatively "low-level offence", Woolley's history of domestic violence incidents and the breach of the intensive correction order, meant that a prison sentence is required.
"This offence is some nasty text messages, so that's down here [holds hand low], but the offender is up here [holds hand higher] - so this is somewhere in the middle," he said.
"He has a substantial amount of domestic violence offences on his record and it's noted they don't all involve the same victim.
"And this was a willful breach. He's crossed the custody threshold, he can't step back, he must step in."
