Harvey man Shannon Richard Stables jailed for 12 months for contacting ex-partner over nine month period

A 36-year-old Harvey man has been told to “consider himself warned” after avoiding being declared a serial family violence offender, despite being jailed for 12 months for contacting his ex-partner over a nine-month period. Shannon Richard Stables appeared in Bunbury Magistrate’s Court via videolink from Bunbury Regional Prison on Friday where he was jailed for 28 counts of breaching a family violence restraining order. The court was told Stables was served a family violence restraining order in July 2019 protecting his former wife of 12 years. However, Stables made numerous attempts to communicate with the protected person via text messages, emails and MMS videos between April last year and January. In some of the messages, Stables described the victim as “evil”, the “most cruel human I’ve ever met”, a “f...ing piece of s...”, and implied she was a dog. In other messages sent to the victim, Stables also asked the protected person “not to dob him in” to police. However, Stables also sent apologetic messages, claiming he “would never stop loving (the victim)” and made inquiries with the victim to see their children. In submissions, the court was told the offending was largely motivated by the frustration over not being able to see his children, who he had not seen in two years. Stables’ defence counsel Alex Collins said his client essentially “vented via electronic means” and there was no threat of physical harm to the victim nor any physical breaches of the restraining order. In sentencing, Magistrate Benjamin Tyers described Stables’ offending as “manipulative messaging to evoke a favourable response from the victim”. “There’s a lot of manipulation there,” he said. Mr Tyers also noted Stables clearly knew he was “plainly breaching” the order in some of the messages he sent but was “left to continue offending” following a delay in the charges being laid. Mr Tyers also took the view that the serial family violence declaration was not appropriate but told Stables to “consider himself warned” if he were to offend in a similar way in the future. Stables’ jail term was backdated to February and he will be eligible for parole in August.