A magistrate hade the choice to jail a young man who brutalised his partner – instead she made him ‘cross his heart and swear to God’ to not do it again.
Baiden Foley came before Kalgoorlie Magistrate Donna Webb last week.
He beat his partner with his fists and a broom – when the broom broke, he stabbed her to the face with the sharp end.
He also threatened to stab a relative in the face using a kitchen knife, the Kalgoorlie Miner reports.
Foley pleaded guilty to six charges including aggravated unlawful wounding, aggravated assault occasioning bodily harm and aggravated made a threat to do an act.
Magistrate Webb told Foley his offending was an act of ‘extraordinarily serious domestic violence’ that warranted a prison term.
Then she asked him if he would ‘cross his heart and swear to God’ that he would follow a court order to not harm another woman, to which he answered yes.
“He needs to man up and do the right thing, not walk around like Conan the Barbarian,” she told Foley’s lawyer.
Webb suspended his six-month jail term for six months, put him on a 12-month community-based order and fined him.
The prosecution is seeking a serial family violence offender order.
MAGISTRATE MAKES DOMESTIC VIOLENCE THUG ‘CROSS HIS HEART’
