Violent stalker gets jail

Man sentenced to two years for offences against partner

A CONVICTED stalker who bashed his partner, smashed her car and harassed her with 39 phone calls has been sentenced over the long-running domestic violence offences.

Hope Vale man Ricky Dean Darkan pleaded guilty in the Cairns District Court to 15 charges, including one count of stalking and seven breaches of domestic violence orders.

He was sentenced to two years in prison but released yesterday after serving nine months of pre-sentence custody. The 46-year-old was arrested in December last year and charged with stalking, five months after he punched and kicked his partner of 12 years on the ground as they walked home from a house party.

Prosecutor Gavin Webber said the victim, with whom Darkan has one child, suffered cuts and bruises to her head and a domestic violence order was issued by police after the July 6 bashing.

Two days later, Darkan left 39 missed calls on her mobile phone and the next day approached her from the darkness at the rear of her home before leaving.

“She turned her telephone off because she was frightened,” Mr Webber said.

At about 2am on July 10, Darkan tried to break into her Commodore and the following month he broke the lock on the rear of her house and tried to break in through a side window.

The court heard that on November 9 he used a car jack to smash the front and rear windscreen of her car after she refused to let him into her home.

“The most serious offence is the stalking. It’s aggravating in the sense that there’s actual violence, it’s in a domestic context and it’s in breach of a protection order,” Mr Webb said. “It’s aggravated by the continued offending.”

Darkan’s charges also included driving an unregistered vehicle while on a disqualified licence, for which he was disqualified from driving for a further two years.

Chief Judge Kerry O’Brien handed down a two-year prison sentence and released Darkan on parole immediately, while also extending his domestic violence order until the end of 2017.

“Hopefully, you’ve had some time (while in custody) to think about things,” he said.

“I certainly hope that you’ve come to a realisation that violence against women is just not on.”