Teresa Bellette, 46, of Fairway Crescent, Warrnambool, pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool County Court this week to aggravated burglary. 

Crown prosecutor David Cordy said that in December 2015 Bellette’s daughter made allegations abut being sexually assaulted and a teenager was interviewed and charged by police.

About 7pm on November 29, 2016, a police officer went to Bellette‘s home and spoke to the complainant and her mother, telling them the sexual assault charges were going to be withdrawn because there was insufficient evidence to proceed.

Bellette asked the police officer if she could go and bash the accused youth and was told no that was not appropriate.

Between 9pm and 9.30pm that night there was a series of text messages between the complainant and the accused youth and his brother. 

Bellette’s family became extremely angry and at about 11pm, Bellette, the complainant and two others went to the accused youth’s home.

Bellette had armed herself with a cricket bat and the occupants of the home, including a seven-month pregnant young woman, heard Bellette warn them they had until the count of three to open the door.

A window of the house was smashed, the front door kicked in and Bellette led in the posse armed with a cricket bat into the unit.

The complainant smashed glasses and tipped over a coffee table.

A stereo was thrown through a window and the complainant threatened to kill the accused teenager.

The accused youth was punched to the face and head about a dozen times, he ended up on the floor and was repeatedly kicked.

His injuries were relatively minor and suffered a massive headache. 

The complainant also made a vile threat to the pregnant young woman about harming her baby.

Defence counsel Michael Turner said the complainant’s allegations involved her drinking and waking up to find sexual activity going on.

He said Bellette‘s position was that offending did occur and the news that the charges were being withdrawn did not sit well with her. 

Mr Turner said that during communications between the parties that night, Bellette heard someone say on a phone that if they came around, he would have sex with her and again rape her daughter.

“The volitile situation was inflamed. It’s not a defence or excuse but that was her state of mind,” he said, adding Bellette did not know who made the comments.

Judge Felicity Hampel said Bellette led the group through the front door of the victims’ home armed with a cricket bat and the attack then started. 

She said Bellette had brought up six children but could not have acted as a worse role model on the night. 

Bellette grew up in a large family in Tasmania, but her father suffered a heart attack aged 29, she left school at 15 to work in a boots factory, was pregnant at 18, got married and had six children in a relationship badly impacted by family violence.

She left that relationship and Tasmania about seven years ago, is a hard worker and the main breadwinners in a home of seven people.

Judge Hampel said the aggravated burglary involved revenge and vengeance and was a bad example of the one of the most serious sorts of such offences, which carrying a maximum 25 years’ imprisonment.

She said Bellette role was disgraceful and she was fuelled by anger.

“Not only were you first in line, you were armed with a cricket bat, were the first to walk in and demanded to speak to whoever was on the phone,” she said.

The judge said that instead of trying to stop her daughter Bellette had wanted to deal with the other people involved in the situation in handing out revenge and punishment.

“Vigilante actions cannot be countenanced, it is to be decried,” she said, adding that allowing people to take matters into their own hands made a community less safe and less civilised for everyone.

“You can’t take things into your own hands and act as judge, jury and executioner,” she said.

Bellette was convicted and placed on a two-year community corrections order with the condition she do 200 hours of community work.

Judge Hampel said she had taken an unusual course, but it was not without precedent to not impose a jail term.

“I’m going out on a limb for you,” she told Bellette.