A DRUNK parolee who disappeared with his infant daughter after assaulting his former Warrnambool partner and her boyfriend has been jailed for 15 months.
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Fagan Wamoana, 20, of Lyndoch Avenue, Warrnambool, pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool County Court to aggravated burglary, intentionally causing injury and recklessly causing injury.
He has already spent 95 days in custody and is likely to get parole after serving another four months in a youth detention centre.
Judge Mark Taft said it was the second time Womoana had been in court for serious offences.
In June last year Wamoana was sentenced to serve 12 months in a youth justice centre after he kicked and stomped on the head of a man he knocked unconscious in the Warrnambool nightclub precinct, serving about six months before being released on parole.
A pre-sentence report indicated Wamoana had not enjoyed his time on remand and said there was nothing good to be learnt in the prison system, where “only bad things happen”.
The day before the aggravated burglary on May 24 this year, Wamoana had played rugby for the Warrnambool Plovers at Puckapunyal before drinking to excess and turning up at his former partner’s home about 5am.
Womoana aggressively demanded to be let in let in and forced his way inside, where the woman and a male friend were in bed. The woman tried to hold Wamoana back but he struck her to the right side of her face.
Wamoana then threatened the boyfriend before striking him to his head and body, causing swelling and bruising.
Wamoana also caused $800 damage to a door.
He then picked up and left with his 16-month-old daughter, who was found unharmed that morning and Wamoana was arrested.
Judge Taft said the offending was serious. He said Wamoana invaded a home in the early morning, inflicted injuries on two people while in a drunken state and his conduct was inexcusable. He said Wamoana had a “serious but confined” criminal history and every effort should be made to support him. Wamoana’s saving grace was he was a hard worker with a proven work ethic and had reasonable prospects of rehabilitation if he could get a job and stop drinking.
Solicitor Xavier Farrelly said Wamoana started drinking when he was 10 years old and his father was drug-dealing gang member in New Zealand. Wamoana arrived in Australia and started work at a meatworks but lost his job after he started using ice when his previous partner suffered a miscarriage.
The parole board will consider calling in the remainder of Wamoana’s previous sentence.