Kristopher Castle, 26, of Tatura, pleaded guilty in the Koori Court division of Shepparton Magistrates’ Court in mid-August to one count of criminal damage.
The court was told the woman had been waiting to pick up her child from the Goulburn Valley Hotel at 10.30pm on July 24 last year.
Two males came out of the hotel and one started abusing the woman.
A third man then came out of the hotel.
Concerned, the woman locked her car doors and started filming everyone in the area on her phone.
One of the men also said to the woman “come out and fight”.
Castle was one of those in the car park and he attempted to open the passenger door of the car, before kicking the side mirror and breaking it.
On December 12, Castle was sentenced in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court over the incident.
The victim read a victim impact statement to the court, where she told how she started filming in case the men did something to her car.
She said Castle was yelling at her asking why she was filming him, despite her having the camera pointed in a different direction and telling him she was not.
He then attacked her car.
“The entire time I was terrified of my child walking out into that,” the woman said.
“I am disabled and I can’t fight back.
“I shouldn’t have to be scared of being harmed or killed or my child being injured.”
The court was also told of four other incidents the man was on an adjourned undertaking by the court for at that time, with that adjourned undertaking being breached by this incident.
Among these incidents was an assault on a woman in 2023 where he grabbed her by the neck and threw her.
Another was another assault on a woman three months later where he threw her to the ground twice.
Castle’s defence solicitor Ian Michaelson read aloud a letter of apology Mr Castle was made to write to victim of the incident in the car after the Koori Court hearing.
Mr Michaelson asked that Castle be fined, but magistrate Ian Watkins disagreed.
“This community doesn’t tolerate violence against women,” Mr Watkins said.
In sentencing Castle to a community corrections order rather than jail, Mr Watkins told him he was “skating on thin ice”.
“On one view you might minimise it and saw that it was only a mirror,” Mr Watkins said.
“But it was a cowardly attack on a woman who was petrified.
“You and your mates are preying on her like animals.
“At the same time you breached another order by grabbing a woman by the throat and throwing her to the ground.”
Castle was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order, which includes 160 hours of community work.
Sixty of those hours can be used for any drug treatment or rehabilitation, mental health treatment or offending behaviour programs.
As part of the order, Castle will also have to undertake regular drug screens.
He was also ordered to pay $126 in restitution for the damage to the car.
