Thug hits girlfriend

Man angry at sex refusal

A Northern Territory man with 24 convictions for assaults flew into a wild rage when his girlfriend, who was cleaning the graves of her mother and aunty, denied him sex, a court has heard.

Eric William Parker, 39, who was born in Papunya, was sentenced by Justice Trevor Riley on April 3 to 10 months and 16 days’ imprisonment, the time he had served between his arrest and sentence, and released from custody.

Parker pleaded guilty to assaulting his partner at the time and breaking her rake on May 18 last year at Angurugu.

The court heard Parker’s partner was raking the graves of her mother and aunty at Angurugu Cemetery when Parker asked her for sex and she refused. He became “wild and angry,” throwing two rocks, which missed, at her as they walked home.

“You continued arguing with her and then took the rake from her and broke it, snapping it over your knee,” Justice Riley told the court.

“You threatened her and then grabbed the handle of the rake and hit her with it in anger.

“I am told that later when you went back in the house you stabbed yourself with a knife telling [your partner] that this was because she refused to have sex with you.”

The offences were committed in breach of a domestic violence order, the court was told.

Justice Riley said Parker, a father-of-four, had admitted to “a problem with alcohol for some 15 or 20 years”.

This was reflected in an appalling criminal history that featured no fewer than 24 convictions for assaults of varying kinds, plus additional convictions for breaching domestic violence orders, damaging property, and resisting police.

Justice Riley urged Parker to continue with the alcohol counselling he had begun while behind bars awaiting sentence.