Two-year torment, ex-lover walks free

A GOLD Coast woman terrorised by her former partner for more than two years knew he would walk from court this week, despite him pleading guilty to a barrage of torment and stalking. She was right. He did. Over the course of 28 months, Thomas Douglas Ferry, 74, sent hundreds of emails from 14 different accounts to the woman, her employers, current and former partners and family and friends; used a photo on Facebook to track down where she lived; left her old reading glasses on her car parked at a shopping centre; contacted a real estate agent when she placed her home on the market; and sent a warning to a friend who was selling the woman’s car.

The woman says she only had the house and car on the market to stop him from stalking her.

In the Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday, Ferry, a retired IT specialist, was sentenced to six months prison, wholly suspended for two years.

His lawyer said the New Zealand citizen had terminal prostate cancer, was taking part in a drug trial that had changed his mood, and was at risk of deportation.

“I just lost control of my life,” the woman told the Bulletin hours after Ferry was sentenced. “He will just walk away from court (as if nothing has happened). It doesn’t really get us anywhere, there is nothing I can do. You keep bashing your head against a brick wall.”

The woman, who asked not to be named, said she had taken steps so she could not be tracked down again.

The court was told that weeks after the pair broke up, Ferry sent the woman and people she knew emails “almost daily”. The woman, 64, would block Ferry’s email address, so he would create a new one. All up he used 14 different email accounts.

He only stopped when police charged Ferry with unlawful stalking last August.

Ferry pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of unlawful stalking. In sentencing Ferry, Magistrate Louisa Pink said of the woman: “She certainly felt monitored and surveilled.”

Magistrate Pink said she accepted that none of the emails were threatening or violent but did paint the woman in a negative light.

“It was persistent and it did involve a considerable degree of persistence over that long period of time.”

Prosecutor Paula Cavanagh told the Southport Domestic and Family Violence Court: “The defendant (Ferry) has remarried and gotten on with his life but the woman has not been able to.”

Ms Cavanagh tried to depict the woman’s pain and horror during a two-hour sentencing proceeding, providing only a sample of the emails the woman was sent. All up, there would have been hundreds of pages.

“There were attempts to interfere with her life when selling her car and property and attempts to ensure the defendant knew what she was doing,” she said.

The court was told that when the women sent an email asking Ferry to stop, he replied: “Why? All is fair in love and war.”

Defence lawyer Darren Mahony, of Jacobson Mahony Lawyers, said Ferry had terminal prostate cancer and was taking part in a drug trial. He said the drug had changed his mood.

Mr Mahony told the court that Ferry had undergone counselling, was in a stable relationship and had close ties to the community through the church.

Ms Cavanagh pointed out the emails had continued despite these factors.

Ferry was quiet through a majority of the proceedings

It doesn’t really get us anywhere, there is nothing I can do. You keep bashing your head against a brick wall

The former partner of Thomas Ferry (above right) who pleaded guilty this week in the Southport Magistrates Court to stalking

but began to cry when Magistrate Pink mentioned references from his family and friends.

The woman told the Bulletin she was frustrated with the system and police were overworked and underresourced. She said she had gone to them first in 2018 and was told she needed to do a private application for a domestic violence order.

After that was unsuccessful she went back again a year later and was again told to do a private application. She was again sent away. It was not until August last year when the woman went to police, this time with a domestic violence advocate, that she managed to talk to a detective. But she was again told any domestic violence order would have to be a private application rather than one made by police.

“I could not understand how they could process the stalking charge but not the domestic violence order,” she said. But she has no animosity for police, instead calling for more resources. “They are overworked and don’t have the time.”

The woman said she was also speaking out to ensure people knew older women also suffered from domestic violence.

In April, the Bulletin revealed about one in 10 domestic violence order (DVO) applications made in Queensland in the 2019-20 financial year came from the Gold Coast. On average, more than 365 DVOs are put in place each month.

Despite this, the Premier’s office admitted that only a fraction of the funding aimed to tackle violence against women this financial year was allocated to the Coast.

A police spokeswoman said when the woman went to police it was “deemed that the most appropriate course of action would be a private domestic violence order (DVO) application”. “The QPS takes all reports of domestic and family violence (DFV) seriously and under the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act, must investigate all DFV reported to police,” she said.

“The QPS is committed to protecting and supporting victims of domestic and family violence and holding perpetrators to account.”

The spokeswoman said police were able to assist in making DVO applications in all areas of domestic and family violence.