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AAP
National
Cassandra Morgan

'Haunts us': mother lives in fear after ex's shooting

A woman has told a court she lives in fear she'll be killed, leaving her daughter motherless. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)

A Victorian mother says she lives in fear her ex-partner will one day kill her even as he sits in jail after shooting a man who tried to keep her safe.

The woman's ex-partner, who cannot be named to protect her identity, relentlessly harassed and abused her, telling her on November 2, 2021, "today is the day I will bury you", a court has heard.

The 32-year-old drove his ute to her home and smashed the car into her side fence later that day, and called her 18 times in the space of two hours about a week later before he reversed through her home's garage door.

He continued to repeatedly call his ex-partner over the coming days, threatening to come to her work and ram cars, and take their daughter out of daycare and go on the run.

The woman had left her house at Mickleham in Melbourne's north by the time he was seen driving past in a stolen gold Mercedes-Benz on November 18, 2021.

She was coming back to the house each day to feed her dog and, on that morning, got a man she knew to escort her there out of fear she would run into her ex-partner.

The pair drove in separate cars to the house, where they pulled up and the woman got out and spoke to him through his window.

Seconds later, her ex-partner pulled up alongside the man in the driveway, said "oi, you dog" and shot him, with bullets striking the man's arm and torso.

He then chased the man in his car and rammed it, causing the man's vehicle to roll multiple times before it landed back on its wheels.

He got out of his car to run to the victim but the victim managed to drive away.

A County Court judge said the shooting showed just how far the man's jealousy and sense of entitlement over his ex-partner pushed his violence.

The woman and the victim were seeing each other and her ex-partner was jealous and angry, the judge said.

"It was appalling behaviour and you should be ashamed," the judge said.

The victim was hospitalised for a week after the shooting and required surgery, which left permanent scars.

The facts of the case were read out on Monday in court, where the man earlier pleaded guilty to 11 charges including recklessly causing serious injury, threatening to kill his ex-partner and damaging property.

In her victim impact statement, the woman said she lived in constant fear she would be killed and her daughter would be left without a mother.

Whenever a loud car approached their home, her daughter would run to her and grip onto her, she said.

"Looking back, I do not know how I survived those times. If it wasn't for (my daughter), I don't think I would have," she said in her statement.

"She's been robbed of being able to enjoy being a child.

"I feel as though no matter what, (my ex-partner) will always control us ... he will haunt us for the rest of our lives."

Lawyers for the man said he grew up in a happy and loving home but started using methamphetamine in his teens and was using the drug daily by 2019.

His ex-partner stood by him after he was first imprisoned at the age of 22, but then his behaviour and attempts at coercive control escalated, the judge said.

The judge sentenced the man to a total of seven years in prison with a non-parole period of four years. 

He has already served 638 days behind bars.

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