An Albury man who used a baseball bat to smash-up a four-wheel-drive as a terrified mother and her toddler daughter sat inside now has jail hanging over his head.
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Jayde Leigh Harris has been given a seven-month jail sentence wholly suspended on a stalking and intimidation charge related to the incident.
He was given a three-month fixed sentence for destroy or damage property, the term having expired by the time Harris – who was already in custody – was sentenced in Albury Local Court this week.
Harris, 34, pleaded guilty to the charges, with police withdrawing a third charge of being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence.
His offending against the mother-of-three began on August 2 just before 6pm.
That was when the woman parked her four-wheel-drive outside her home in Gulpha Street, North Albury, leaving her two-year-old daughter in the vehicle.
She ran inside to grab a jacket as she was in a hurry to get to her gym.
The woman said goodbye to her two older children, then her 12-year-old daughter told her there was a man banging on the front door of the house.
After calling out to ask who it was, Harris responded: “Is that your f … ing kid in the car?”
The woman said she was just quickly grabbing her jacket, to which Harris said he was going to take a photograph of her number plate before leaving the property.
She walked to her car, then watched Harris head off calling out abuse. Minutes later, she drove away slowly as Harris ran out of a nearby house armed with a baseball bat.
The woman had to swerve to prevent the car being struck with the bat.
But that was not enough to prevent Harris striking the vehicle about four times.
When she returned home she got out of the vehicle and saw that a back passenger window and side mirror were smashed, with a dint in one of the doors.
This left her with a damage bill of $2200.
She was so scared by what happened that she stayed inside her house, where she logged onto a friend-finding website that revealed she was being stalked by Harris.