An Albion Park Rail man who unleashed a series of violent attacks against a disabled woman later tried to pressure her from his jail cell to drop the several charges laid against him.
"Please don't tell the police that I've contacted you ... you have to withdraw all this sh--," Zacharia Jimmy Dox Bero said in a recorded prison call in October 2022.
"I am," the victim replied.
"I'm so f---ing sorry for the way I carried on, I had no f---ing right, but I don't deserve to be in jail," Bero said.
Bero dialled into Wollongong District Court from custody on Thursday where he lowered his head as Judge Huw Baker read out his sentence.
The 26-year-old pleaded guilty in May to contravening an apprehended violence order, damaging property, intimidation, acting with intent to influence a witness, and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Bero was on parole when he bashed the victim at her home during September 2022 after the pair went to an Illawarra pub together in defiance of an apprehended violence order.
He accused the victim of sleeping with another man before pushing her to the ground, causing her jeans to rip and knees to graze.
Bero then followed the woman into a room where he smashed her television, before punching her in the head several times.
He unleashed another attack on the woman at her unit a week later - again in jealous rage - in which he unleashed a flurry of punches, leaving significant bruising all over her body.
The victim escaped from the unit the next morning and got in contact with support services who assisted her with making a police report.
She was taken to hospital for her injuries and Bero was arrested that night. However his control over the woman didn't stop there.
From his cell, Bero had access to a telephone and could only call a list of approved people. He called his mother on October 14, 2022 who then initiated a three-way call with the victim.
"I just want to talk to you about the charges, are you going to fix it?" Bero asked the victim.
"Yeah I'm trying to," she said.
"Please don't tell the pigs I contacted you," he said.
Judge Baker said the violence was serious, especially due to it being sustained, adding Bero's criminal record disentitled him to leniency in sentencing. He added the calls were "manipulative" and a significant example of such offending.
Defence barrister Jack Hibbard said Bero's pressuring of the victim in the calls were in relation to serious indictable charges that were initially laid upon him, but were subsequently withdrawn by the prosecution.
Bero received a three-year and two-month jail term, with a two-year and one-month non-parole period. With time already served, he will become eligible for release in December 2024.
The Crown applied for an apprehended violence order to be extended for two years upon Bero's release to protect the victim.
Read more Illawarra court and crime stories here.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Men's Referral Service 1300 776 491; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; beyondblue 1300 224 636; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732.
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Grace Crivellaro
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
