TWICE ignoring a new intervention order has led to a Warrnambool man now serving a previously-suspended, six-month jail sentence.
Bradley John Mitchem, 28, of Skene Street, pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court to two counts of breaching an intervention order, which in turn triggered violation of a community corrections order (CCO) and the suspended sentence.
Police alleged that on October 26 last year an intervention order was put in place preventing Mitchem from contacting or approaching his former partner.
The next two days he went to the woman’s Laverock Road home and spoke to her. Mitchem told police he wanted to try to sort out issues with her.
Defence counsel Natalie Sheridan-Smith said her client had a brain tumour in 2009 and ongoing issues with substance abuse. She said he had a “it-can’t-get-worse attitude” and was facing another hearing in the County Court during April on another charge which predated the IVO offences.
She said the breaches of the intervention orders were at the lower end of the scale.
Magistrate Jonathan Klestadt said Mitchem did not have a lengthy criminal history but he was charged with serious offending in April last year.
He said Mitchem was alcohol and drug affected and in the possession of a loaded sawn-off shotgun.
On November 6 last year Mr Klestadt imposed a suspended jail sentence and a CCO which attempted to provide support for Mitchem’s alcohol and drug issues.
The magistrate said yesterday that Mitchem had failed to engage with the Office of Corrections and three months after the order was imposed had offended again.