A MAN will have to complete unpaid community work after he admitted to sending his former partner abusive messages.
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The 26-year-old man fronted the Bendigo Magistrates' Court last week where he pleaded guilty to persistently contravening a family violence intervention order.
The court heard the order was issued on November 30, with the man's former partner listed as the protected person.
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Under the order, the man was not allowed to contact the woman or be near her.
On December 18, the woman asked the man to come to her Long Gully home to change a tyre on her car.
He did as he was asked and then left the property. But a short time later, the woman saw him drive past again and park about 200 metres away in a vacant block.
The man then kept surveillance on the woman for several hours.
The next morning, the woman received a text from the 26-year-old where he called her a "pathetic wh***".
The man then called her on December 20, saying she was a bad mother and he was calling child protection officers on her.
Shortly after noon, the man sent the woman another 15 text messages in contravention of the intervention order.
The woman went to the Bendigo Police Station about 1pm that day to report the offending.
The man followed her to the station to ask for an intervention order against the woman, so he was arrested and interviewed.
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The court heard the man made partial admissions and said he was worried about the children.
Defence lawyer Eleanor Miller said the man was the father of those children and the couple had organised child arrangements through a written agreement.
Ms Miller said the day after the couple signed the agreement, the woman stopped the man from seeing his children.
The defence lawyer said the man subsequently reported the woman to child protection officers because he believed she was leaving them at home alone while she went out.
Ms Miller said the man had mental health issues, including chronic anxiety, depression, and borderline personality disorder.
She said a community corrections order with therapeutic conditions could be within range for the offending.
Magistrate Trieu Huynh said breaches of intervention orders happened way too often in the community so the sentence should deter others from similar offending.
Mr Huynh said he accepted the man needed support for his mental health, so he convicted and sentenced the 26-year-old to a 12-month community corrections order.
As part of the order, the man will need to complete 75 hours of unpaid community work, mental health treatment, and a men's behaviour change program.
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