A man who booted open his ex-partner’s door in the middle of the night and berated her in front of three young children says she is the love of his life.
That statement - made by Levon Mark Wallace-Grant to a Probation officer before yesterday’s Dunedin District Court sentencing - was ‘‘concerning’’, Judge Michael Turner said.
The pair had broken up but the defendant seemed unable to accept that.
‘‘Statements like that suggest jealousy, possessiveness and an inability to move on and that escalates the risk to her,’’ the judge said.
Wallace-Grant had a history of domestic violence and had been involved in 17 family harm events since 2013, the court heard.
Yesterday he was jailed for 14 months on charges of breaching a protection order, theft and breaching release conditions, and Judge Turner imposed six months’ release conditions which included the possibility of GPS monitoring to further protect his former partner.
On December 17, after consuming alcohol and ecstasy with friends, Wallace-Grant formed the view the victim had been seeing someone while he was behind bars.
In the early hours of the morning, he persuaded a friend to drive him to her home.
Wallace-Grant kicked open a locked door and found the woman asleep with their three kids.
The defendant stood over the victim and verbally abused her, before taking her phone and pushing her back on the mattress when she tried to stop him.
The woman, the court heard, contacted police by pushing a safety alarm which had been installed at the home.
In a statement to the court Wallace-Grant’s ex-partner said she had had enough.
Her family feared for her life, she wrote.
A report on Wallace-Grant put him at a high risk of reoffending and high risk of harming others.
Judge Turner questioned the example the defendant was setting to his children.
‘‘What sort of role model are you providing for them? Dad’s no longer with mum but feels entitled to arrive in the middle of the night to boot the door in, drugged up, because he’s jealous,’’ he said.
Wallace-Grant had been in custody for nearly four months awaiting sentence.
