A POLICEWOMAN who was allegedly stalked by her former partner travelled “halfway around the world” to escape him, a court has heard.
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The 34-year-old, who has worked at Bendigo and Castlemaine stations, gave testimony in the Bendigo Magistrates Court Monday.
Her former partner, also a serving Bendigo police officer at the time of the alleged offences, has been charged with stalking and breaching Family Violence Protection Orders on several occasions.
Both cannot be named for legal reasons.
The woman gave evidence against the officer of 20 years from behind a screen to avoid eye contact with the man, who has pleaded not guilty.
The court heard the man, 42, had been the woman’s supervisor before the couple started a relationship in February 2010.
They were living together by September 2010 and planned to get married in September 2012, but the relationship soured before the wedding. The court heard the woman broke off their engagement in May 2012, but the father of two had failed to accept the relationship was over.
“There was a communication about him not liking failure, that he wasn’t prepared to give up ... on us being together one day,” she said.
The woman said she received calls, messages, emails, a parcel, and a list titled “200 things I bring to the table”.
The accused man also visited her home, she said.
The woman said she had flown to New Zealand and the US to escape her former partner but was still pursued.
“I’ve gone halfway round the world and I can’t get any peace and quiet, I’m still being pursued,” she said.
“What is it going to take for me to get some peace and quiet and for him to accept that this is over?”
The woman received a letter from the man and his daughter on December 4, 2012, a late-night visit from the man 11 December 2012 and a “suicide email”, she said.
The woman said she had felt “very uneasy” when she found the list of things the man “brought to the table” in her front yard given it was close to her bedroom and likely dropped off at night.
It's alleged the man sent his 12-year-old daughter into the Mitchell Street Florist on Valentine's Day last year to order flowers to the woman, which were delivered, before calling her to say it had been an accident.
The woman sought several intervention orders and was placed on medication to deal with stress levels “through the roof” and anxiety.
She told the court she had been forced to move to Melbourne as “everybody (at work) knew everything about what was going on” and media coverage.
Defence barrister Michael Cahill put it to the alleged victim that she initiated contact on many occasions in September 2012 and had been sending mixed messages, but the woman said the contact mainly concerned bills and she had wanted to keep things friendly.
She said she had repeatedly told the man she did not want a relationship but was still contacted.
The hearing before Magistrate Phillip Goldberg will resume Tuesday.