Albury man remains in custody after having breaching parole with latest offending

While Raymond John Godfrey's lengthy stretches in jail were highlighted, at no point was the fact he committed murder get a mention.

Godrey has appeared in Albury Local Court, via a video link to Junee jail, for sentence on domestic violence-related charges of using a carriage service to threaten, harass or offend and contravention of an apprehended violence order.

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Magistrate Susan McGowan deemed that Godfrey's offending was at the lower end of the criminal scale, but an application for a new AVO was treated quite differently.

Ms McGowan granted police a 15-year restraining order in order to protect his victim - his ex-wife, who he married in 2001 in jail after they met while he served a 25-year maximum sentence for murder and malicious infliction of grievous bodily harm.

While police prosecutor Sergeant Casey Braz submitted that Godfrey's offending had, given his violent past, crossed the threshold for a jail sentence, the 55-year-old was instead placed on a 15-month community correction order.

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Godrey, 55, of Smollett Street, was also convicted and fined $350 on the carriage service charge.

"I've seen a lot worse," Ms McGowan said of the latter.

"Haven't we all?"

Godfrey's latest offending involved text messages sent to his ex-wife on August 12, 14 and 22.

He has served several jail terms in the past for breaching intervention orders and assaulting the victim.

Godfrey used a brick to kill his first wife, Betina Givorshner, in their suburban Sydney home at Chatswood on September 25, 1989.

RELATED: Albury man Raymond John Godrey murdered his first wife in Sydney

He also threw his toddler daughter at a wall, leaving the 13-month-old with permanent injuries including serious frontal lobe damage to her brain and hearing loss.

Godfrey changed his name from John Raymond Holschier on being released on parole in 2008.

Defence lawyer Dane Keenes said Godfrey had been in custody since August 26.

He had been released on parole on March and would now possibly remain in custody until February while his case was assessed by the NSW State Parole Authority.

"Certainly the offences on his record do not entitle him to any leniency," Mr Keenes submitted to the court.

"This is a man, Mr Godfrey, who has been in custody for a substantial part of his adult life."

The messages, he said, had to be seen within the context of a man who as such was "not tech savvy". Godfrey had ongoing health issues, including schizophrenia.

"He also does still enjoy the support of his family; his sister is here today."

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