Marc Harrison, 49, of Toolamba, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to making threats to kill, assault, negligently causing serious injury, failing to render assistance after a crash and contravening an order intending to cause harm or fear to a person.
He also pleaded guilty to a summary charge of driving while disqualified.
The court heard the day before he ran over her, Harrison and his partner Belinda Gale had gotten into an argument, with Harrison screaming that he was going to kill her and threatening to smash up the motor home they were staying in while camping along the Goulburn River.
Later, he broke into the motor home and pulled her out of it by her hair, before continuing to attack her while she was on the ground.
The following day, on March 21, 2023, the two argued again, with Harrison chasing Ms Gale in his SUV as she ran from tree to tree in the bush for protection.
After walking for two hours back to Toolamba, Ms Gale left in a Holden Barina car.
Harrison followed her car as she drove along Bridge Rd at Toolamba.
Fearing Harrison would sideswipe her car once they got past the single lane section of the road, Ms Gale stopped and got out of her car and walked behind it.
The court was told Harrison then struck her with his SUV and she went under his vehicle.
He then reversed and hit her a second time, leaving her with multiple complex fractures to her leg and significant stomach injuries.
As Harrison was trying to move Ms Gale off the road, another person stopped and told him to stop moving her, and called emergency services.
When a second person stopped, Harrison made up a story that Ms Gale was hit by a kangaroo.
He then left before the ambulance had arrived.
Ms Gale was flown to Royal Melbourne Hospital by air ambulance and has been operated on five times since then.
The court heard Harrison made up other versions of what had happened, telling them to people including his parents and police.
In a police interview Harrison said he didn’t know how his partner’s injuries had occurred, instead coming up with multiple theories, including one that she “may have run over herself”.
In handing down a jail sentence, Judge Kate Hawkins while Harrison was “not travelling at speed” when he hit Ms Gale, he “would have been aware of the proximity of your car to the victim”.
She also said Harrison’s moral culpability was exacerbated by the “web of deceit you sought to weave” with the several made-up versions he told of what had happened.
‘‘You continue to blame the victim for your choice to use the car as a weapon,” Judge Hawkins said.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Gale told the court of chronic pain she still faced and that she could not weight-bear on her legs and that she had scars from head to toe.
Ms Gale also spoke of not being able to work and having recurring flashbacks.
Judge Hawkins said Harrison’s prospects of rehabilitation “remain guarded”, but she acknowledged issues he was having in prison with getting strong pain medications for a back injury from 2011 that had left him unable to work, and how that would make his time in prison harder.
While Harrison’s defence counsel asked for him to be given a prison sentence in combination with a community correction order, Judge Hawkins said this would be “wholly inadequate”.
Harrison was sentenced to five years and six months in prison.
He must serve three years and six months before becoming eligible for parole.
The 160 days he has already spent in pre-sentence detention awaiting the matter to finalise in court will count as time already served.
Harrison’s driver’s licence was also cancelled for four years, and he was also fined $1000 on the summary charge of driving while disqualified.
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