A man has been fined for breaching an intervention order by incessantly contacting his long-term de-facto partner, with whom he is expecting a child.
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The man pleaded guilty in the Magistrates Court to texting and calling his partner, despite being told not to contact her.
The Mail-Times has chosen not to identify the man, in order to protect the identity of the victim.
The court heard police attended an incident at the start of the year and the man was later issued with a no-contact order.
The man's partner called him 10 times the following day, to which he responded saying 'he was going for a drive'.
The pair then exchanged a chain of text messages, during which the man said: "so can I come back now? I guess you've got your new bloke now, so you're too busy to reply."
The man is said to have sent 25 messages to his partner in one evening, which was in response to her calls and texts, as the two argued over the status of their relationship.
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Days later, the man was intercepted by police on Hamilton Street, Horsham for an unrelated matter.
While dealing with police, he recorded a video and sent it to his partner.
Police said the man made "full admissions" to breaching the intervention order at the time.
The man told the court that he had wanted to stay involved in his partner and children's lives.
"I've been through this three or four times now," he said.
"Being together for (so long) and with kids and one on the way, I still want to be there for them."
Magistrate Cynthia Toose asked the man if he understood the seriousness of the breaches.
"Do you understand that (your partner) can't give you permission to breach this order," she said.
"You need to understand for persistent breaches like this you could be looking at imprisonment."
The court heart the man and his partner had since amended the intervention order to allow safe contact.
Ms Toose handed down a $750 fine, taking into account financial pressure brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
She warned the man he faced a "bleak future" if he breached the order again.
"I'm not going to imprison you because I'm taking the offending in the context of what was happening," she said.
"I take it in the context of you responding by text in an argument.
"But you need to be smart...you need to be very careful because this is recorded as a prior conviction and it could paint a very bleak future."
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