An Albury man with an “extensive history of domestic violence offences” sent a barrage of texts to an ex-partner, a court has heard.
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The woman, who Trent Gregory Grundy met on an online dating site, tried sending a photo of her injured son to get him to stop.
The woman’s thinking was that seeing the photo of her child and his burnt arm would make Grundy realise she was busily dealing with the injury.
But the harassment didn’t stop and eventually degenerated into one day on which Grundy sent 58 text messages full of foul language and unrelenting put-downs.
“Go f … yourself and jump off a bridge,” concluded one message.
Grundy was calm and quiet as he fronted magistrate Rodney Brender in Albury Local Court this week.
When his case was called, he and a woman supporting him in court kissed each other on the cheek before he made his way to a microphone, next to the bar table, to represent himself.
He pleaded guilty, back on February 26, to using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.
Police said Grundy, 39, had been charged 16 times with breaching an apprehended domestic violence order and had also previously breached bail conditions.
The court was told he and the victim, now aged 45, were together from July to December, 2017. She ended the relationship.
Grundy’s relentless texting began on December 19 when he sent her 62 messages and the victim replied with 38. Given “the nature and the volume” of messages, the victim blocked Grundy’s number from December 19 to 27.
But when the victim’s son received two long text messages from Grundy, she unblocked his number so her boy would not be exposed to what he wrote.
The messaging continued the following day, so the victim asked Grundy to make no further contact.
She even tried to diffuse the situation by later agreeing to talk to him by phone, but had to end the call after 38 minutes.
The last group of messages came on December 29 between 1.16am and 6.06pm.
Mr Brender ordered that Grundy be assessed for an intensive corrections order, adjourning the case for sentence on September 27.
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