Man vowed to kill women with cleaver

HOLDING on to a meat cleaver, a Bell Post Hill man told two women who had locked themselves in a room that he would kill them.

Paul Blanch, 72, entered a plea of guilty at the Geelong Magistrates Court to charges of unlawful assault and making threats to kill.

In December 2019, Blanch was accused of escalating an argument with another man at his home in Bell Post Hill while under the influence of alcohol.

The court heard the man moved into another room to defuse the situation but the arrival of two women angered Blanch so much he turned the radio up loud and started yelling abuse at them before disappearing upstairs.

Police submitted he then took a meat cleaver from the kitchen and told the man he was going to “kill them”. When the man tried to stop him, he was pushed to the ground and told he was “going to finish them”.

When the man made another attempt to stop the 72year-old, Blanch threw him back to the ground and punched him with a closed fist when he got up. Blanch then grabbed the man by the neck, “causing him pain”.

The man had warned the two women to lock themselves in a bedroom downstairs, but he told the victim he was going to “kill them tonight”.

The man told police that Blanch, still holding the meat cleaver, kicked on the door and yelled, “I will kill you, I will kill you”. The man tried to push him back but was attacked at every attempt.

After learning that Blanch had not spent any time in custody for the offences, Magistrate John Bentley said: “That surprises me, it’s pretty serious.”

Blanch’s lawyer claimed his client had “lost control” and did not realise the extent of the harm when the argument started to escalate.

Mr Bentley rebutted this, telling the lawyer that the “only escalation seems to be from your client”.

Blanch was placed on a community corrections order for 12 months and will be expected to complete an alcohol management program.