A Lavington man became so obsessed with a female friend that he ran her off the road after pulling ahead of her in his car, a court has heard.
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Kieran James Hindle has been warned that what he did was totally unacceptable.
“It’s a fairly serious matter,” magistrate Erin Kennedy told the 28-year-old labourer.
Because of that she urged him to go back to Legal Aid to see if he could “get some advice”.
Ms Kennedy ordered a pre-sentence report for Hindle, who pleaded guilty in Albury Local Court this week to charges of stalk or intimidate, driving recklessly or in a manner dangerous and common assault.
He also faced a charge of driving with a licence expired less than two years before, on which he was convicted and fined $400 and banned from driving for three months.
The court was told how Hindle and the victim had been friends for about seven months, having met through mutual friends.
But they were not in any sort of domestic relationship.
Police told the court that Hindle began sending the victim messages over several months, the contact gradually becoming more frequent.
That was to the point where the victim began “to feel hassled”.
She felt that Hindle’s behaviour was becoming controlling.
This culminated in an incident that took place in early February about 10.30pm when the victim was driving along Dick Road in Lavington. She saw Hindle’s parked ute.
After dropping off a male friend, the victim looked into her rear-vision mirror and saw the ute pull away from the kerb and begin following her car – through several North Albury streets.
At one point, in Waugh Road, the victim was “extremely fearful” of a crash.
When he eventually swerved in front of her, she had to swerve her own car and brake to avoid a collision.
In an incident late at night on February 22, Hindle approached her outside a Lavington hotel and, as she went to get out of her car, he shoved her in the back and on to the ground.
Hindle will be sentenced on December 18.