The 85-year-old man, formerly of Cobram but who now lives in another part of the state, pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court to making a threat to kill, aggravated burglary and contravention of an intervention order intending to cause fear to safety.
The court heard the man went to his wife’s house with a hunting knife, cable ties and rope, and snuck inside after he was served with a final intervention order by his wife on July 10 last year.
He pointed the knife at her and threatened to kill her, and later told her he was going to tie her up.
He told her that it was all her fault, and that she shouldn’t have gone to the police, when she took out an interim intervention order a few months earlier.
The woman tried to placate the man, agreeing with everything he asked, including that he move back into the house, during the ordeal that lasted two and a half hours.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman told how she “thought he was going to kill me”.
The incident came about after the man’s wife and a son tried to speak to him a few months earlier about being scammed online and he became enraged and aggressive about it, making them fearful of him.
When interviewed by police, the man told them he had obtained the knife to harm his wife, but said he would not have killed her.
In handing down the sentence, Judge Wendy Wilmoth also spoke of how neurological testing of the man “was strongly supportive of vascular dementia”, and that she took this into account when assessing his moral culpability.
She also said it and other medical issues would make any time in prison more onerous for the man than for a regular person.
Judge Wilmoth said the woman had been terrified during the attack and thought she was going to die.
With victim impact statements by the woman, the pair’s son and daughter, as well as the woman’s brother, Ms Wilmoth said there had been “far-reaching trauma” caused by the incident.
“You placed a vulnerable woman at threat in her own home,” she said.
“Violence does not solve problems, and your family members must be able to feel safe.”
The man was jailed for three years and six months.
He will have to serve 15 months in prison before he becomes eligible for parole, with Judge Wilmoth saying the long period after parole would help him receive services he needed.
The 256 days he has already spent in pre-sentence detention will count as time already served.
If you or someone you know is experiencing or perpetrating family or domestic violence, you can phone 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.
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