A Canberra man who sent intimate images of his partner to her teenage brother has avoided more jail time, and will not be restricted from returning to live with her.
The 36-year-old pleaded guilty to a raft of crimes committed during 2021 and 2022, including theft, repeated breaches of domestic violence orders and assault, as well as distributing an intimate image.
The court was told he was remanded in custody in March last year after the woman's 17-year-old brother called police to say the man had smashed up the woman's home.
His partner's face was cut and items in the house had been broken.
"The conduct amounted to a rampage through a person's home," Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker said.
The man was also charged with theft after he and the woman were captured on CCTV stealing garden furniture from a house.
On a separate occasion, he was identified via CCTV footage posted to Facebook stealing a package from a front door.
In 2021, the man breached a family violence order when he visited the woman. She had told police that he was manipulating her.
Chief Magistrate Walker took particular aim at the sending of the intimate image.
"It was aimed to cause maximum humiliation," she said.
Adding that there was evidence of controlling behaviour.
Man shows very high level of disdain for court, says chief magistrate
The court was told how the man had asked someone else to tell the woman to "drop all the bullshit charges or he will get two years".
The court noted that the man had put the woman's phone number on his call list in the jail and had rung her several times a day demanding she "drop this shit".
He also wanted her to call his lawyer and to help him.
The chief magistrate told the court the offending demonstrated a very high level of disdain for the court orders.
The court was told the man had had a difficult early life after he was abandoned at the age of 10, had to steal to get food, and was on drugs in his early teens.
But his lawyer told the court he had recently taken part in a course aimed at helping family violence offenders, and while on bail, had returned clean drug results for many months.
The man's partner did not enter a victim impact statement.
"I cannot determine from the evidence whether (his partner's) participation in this relationship is voluntary," Chief Magistrate Walker said.
She said she wasn't convinced the man truly appreciated the harm his violence had caused.
But she has placed him on an intensive corrections order on the condition he not reoffend or use drugs.
"I am very concerned about your conduct to (your partner)," the chief magistrate said.
"You have a very significant journey ahead of you.
"You cannot afford to have any backsliding or any mistakes while this order is in place."
The man agreed before leaving the court
