A man has escaped being sent to jail for slapping and abusing a former partner when she refused to have sex with him, threatening to publish explicit videos of the pair, and harassing her with phone calls after she had taken an Apprehended Domestic Violence Order out against him.
Stephen Charles Lombardi was sentenced in Toronto Local Court on Tuesday afternoon to an eight-month Intensive Correction Order - considered a custodial sentence served in the community - as well as 120 hours of community service for his crimes.
The court heard that Lombardi's previous "on-again-off-again partner" invited him to her home for a drink on December 18 last year. They had split up about two years earlier, Magistrate Peter Barnett said.
While they were messaging each other, making arrangements, Lombardi sent an unsolicited picture of his genitals to the woman - at which point she told him she no longer wanted him to come over. He abused her in a text message in response.
Lombardi then went to the woman's house regardless of being told not to and she let him inside. The court heard she was worried the situation would escalate if she refused to let him in.
When the woman rejected his advances, Lombardi hit her to the side of her head and verbally abused her.
A few hours after she kicked him out, he sent her copies of explicit videos depicting the pair from a previous time and threatened to make them public, the court heard.
The woman told him she was taking an ADVO out against him. Despite this, he tried to call her about 30 times between December 31 and January 4.
He has spent a month in jail on remand since he was charged.
The court heard that Lombardi considered himself a role model to younger people in the community.
Magistrate Barnett condemned the 56-year-old's actions.
"I'd hate for anyone in the community who's looking up to him to think that any of it is, at all, proper," he said.
"No wonder we have a society where young men can't understand what 'no' means."
