Prisoner’s barrage of vulgar calls

A PRISONER at Borallon Correctional Centre made threats including one that he was going to smash a woman’s skull during a series of phone calls made from the jail that breached a protection order.

Exactly how the father of three was allowed to make more than 1400 phone calls from jail was questioned by a horrified Ipswich magistrate when the man faced court.

Appearing from jail via video-link for sentence at Ipswich Magistrates Court, the 26-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to three charges of contravening domestic violence protection orders – aggravated offences.

The intercepted calls included phone messages and texts, many of which were described by the magistrate as “vulgar and hostile”.

In agreed police facts before the court the offender made 1468 calls between December 1 last year and May 9 this year from Borallon.

Not all calls were to the woman but involved other family members, the court heard.

Defence lawyer John Wilson said the woman subject of the protection order was no longer in a relationship with the defendant.

He conceded that given the man’s history the penalty would have to be a jail order.

Mr Wilson said the first of the three offences before the court was more serious “given the most awful language used”.

He said the 1400 calls made by the man while in jail were to his estranged partner and others and captured on the Arunta prison telephone system.

Magistrate Leanne Scoines said the man had significant history that included prior jail orders for domestic violence offending, and he had continued to offend while in jail.

He was convicted and jailed for six months with parole set on November 18. He will also be subject to an 18-month supervised probation order.