Controversial Farmer Wants a Wife contestant Samuel Messina confessed to trespassing and threatening to kill a woman's pet rabbits.
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The reality TV star faces further domestic violence charges relating to incidents that allegedly occurred in 2020.
Messina, who appeared last year on the reality TV show for farmers looking for love, pleaded guilty in Port Kembla court yesterday to unlawful entry, and intimidation charges.
Court documents reveal that Messina went into the victim's yard in February last year without her permission and took her pet rabbits.
Messina threatened to sell them, and then said he would kill them.
He left the victim's house and then returned later. She convinced him to give the pets back.
Messina pleaded not guilty to four other charges of assault occasioning bodily harm.
Magistrate Ong heard that on March 2, 2021, the victim informed Lake Illawarra Police of several allegations against Messina, beginning the year before, and provided photos and other evidence.
Beginning in March, the incidents extended over a "non-insignificant period of 2020" while the victim lived with Messina at his house in Orange.
The victim, her mother and a friend of the victim gave evidence in court.
Screenshots from Instagram messages between the victim and the friend, whom she met online in 2018, were given as evidence.
The victim also spoke on Thursday in a closed court.
The hearing is expected to continue at Port Kembla court in November.
Messina had no criminal convictions in the state of NSW at the time of the alleged offences, defence lawyer Matthew Ward said.
When Messina was a contestant on the reality show, media outlets claimed he had a 'secret girlfriend' while he was filming Farmer Wants a Wife, when he was supposedly 'looking for love'.
Media outlets also claimed Messina was a 'fake farmer', after it was revealed that Messina used land his brother lives on in Canowindra for the reality show when he actually lives in Orange and works as a truck driver.
Messina denied claims he had a girlfriend while filming the show.
In an Instagram post, Messina said that he was never secretive that the land was a "family farm", and he split his time between the farm and nearby Orange.
Messina had two women with him in Port Kembla court for support.
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Rosie Bensley
Illawarra Mercury trainee journalist and newest recruit.
Illawarra Mercury trainee journalist and newest recruit.
