A Lake Macquarie man who sent his former partner text messages saying he would brutalise her before threatening her with an axe at her home has narrowly avoided being taken to jail.
The 32-year-old was on Tuesday sentenced to an eight-month Intensive Correction Order and a two-year good behaviour bond.
Toronto Local Court heard that the man was jealous and controlling of his former partner, with whom he had spent about a decade in a relationship and had a child.
He sent dozens of text messages and voicemails to the woman over the span of a day last November demanding she speak to him - at one point threatening to put her "in the boot".
The court heard that in one of the messages, he threatened to "chop up" the woman and told her in another she would "never see our son again".
After the hours-long tirade, the man went to the woman's home to collect some of his belongings from the garage but picked up an axe and threatened her while he was at the premises.
The woman immediately ran inside and called police. The man left the scene and was arrested the following day.
Magistrate Peter Barnett, SC, said in court on Tuesday that little could be more intimidating than receiving messages about being cut to pieces and seeing the person who made those threats pick up an axe.
"This is about him wanting to control her conduct," he said.
"The effect it had on her was abundantly plain. She didn't think for one moment he wasn't deadly serious. She immediately retreated and called the police - as well she should have."
An Intensive Correction Order is classified as a prison term served in the community, under supervision of Community Corrections. If a person on an ICO breaches any conditions, they are taken straight to jail to serve the remainder of their sentence, not back to court.
