Those were the words used by Judge Kevin Phillips in the Invercargill District Court on Thursday when sentencing Ethan Arthur Reynolds to 19 months' jail for
five breaches of protection order, using a telephone to send profane and obscene language, two charges of threatening to kill, assaulting a person in a family relationship, attempting to pervert
the course of justice, and aggravated driving while suspended.
The offending took place in Invercargill between January 26 and March 23 this year, and began on the day Reynolds (28) was released from jail.
The Invercargill man began to torment his former partner in a barrage of texts, calls and messages.
Judge Phillips said while the definite number of messages and phone calls were not known, the victim, who has name suppression, was contacted about 80 to 90 times.
Crown prosecutor Sarah McKenzie said that some threatening to kill charges were hard to discern.
But "in this case, it’s very clear and substantiated by the Crown - quite concerning, these threats made by the defendant."
The profanity in the threatening to kill texts prevent the Otago Daily Times from printing many of them - however, Judge Phillips read out some of the content sent to the victim.
They included messages about killing them both, and that Reynolds would come to her and kill her, and that he would shoot her.
One of them said: "You’ve ruined my life, I’m going to ruin yours".
While the victim told him to stop, he continued to torment her.
The court was told that, on one day, 19 Facebook messages and 26 text messages were sent, and on another, 30 messages and nine phone calls were made.
Reynolds’ lawyer Sonia Vidal sought leave to apply for home detention, but Judge Phillips was not swayed as Reynolds had been assessed as unsuitable.
The judge said the victim continued to suffer from emotional harm as a result of Reynolds’ relentless and continuous offending.
"She says that she was just worn out by his psychological abuse which just got worse and worse. It has taken a major toll on her life."
A pre-sentence report highlighted Reynolds’ propensity for violence, mental health and drug issues, and assessed him as being unsuitable for home detention, Judge Phillips said.
A test conducted had assessed him as being high risk of causing future harm and he was deemed to be a manipulator of both the victim and his family.
In sentencing him to jail, Judge Phillips said it was serious offending and that the charges were representative.
He allowed Reynolds to apply for home detention - but only to a residential rehabilitative facility which would accept someone on home detention.
The judge also disqualified Reynolds from driving for 12 months.
