Narromine's Jai McGhee sentenced for threatening to send intimate images of woman

Jai Koby Zachariah McGhee, 23, and a woman became involved in an argument in relation to another family member about 4.30pm on April 3 this year.

During the argument the woman asked "are you gonna kill me?", to which McGhee said "If I do I'll kill myself right after so nothing's gonna happen to me, bud."

McGhee then sent Snapchats to the woman asking to bring a family member to his house.

After he was told no, McGhee told the woman to check his Snapchat story in five minutes, before sending an intimate image he had of her.

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"Who would you like me to send them to?," he said to the woman.

McGhee told her he would leave them up until he saw her car in his driveway.

The woman later told police McGhee said he would delete the images if she came over, so arrived at his home to find him standing out the front with two beer bottles.

About 9pm the woman went and spoke to police. She also provided them with screenshots of the messages and the intimate images which showed her face.

Police said McGhee also posted a copy of the woman's bank card along with the back showing its CVV number.

At 9.30pm police went and arrested McGhee. He was taken to Narromine police station where after police explained the allegations, he told them "yeah and I'll keep doing it".

McGhee appeared in Narromine Local Court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to contravening an ADVO, intimidation, threaten to distribute intimate image without consent and intentionally distributing an intimate image without consent.

Defence lawyer Uzma Sherieff said her client was a full time concreter in Dubbo and young Aboriginal man.

She argued the threshold wasn't crossed, as the intimate image was never made publicly available, that the offence occurred over a short period of time and there was no physical offending.

However the court heard McGhee had been handed an 18-month conditional release order in August last year for similar offending against the same woman.

Ms Sherieff said the offence on this occasion was driven by intoxication, which impaired his judgement.

"He said he never would have done something in that nature if he was sober," she said.

However Ms Sherieff said since the incident her client had reduced his drug and alcohol consumption to a "relatively low level".

As indicated by the sentencing assessment report, Ms Sherieff said McGhee was "embarrassed and ashamed for this behaviour".

The court heard McGhee had engaged with Interrelate - a family and relationship counselling service - but was told he did not need to continue after three sessions. However Ms Sherieff said he would be content to re-engage with them and take further sessions.

Magistrate Stephen Olischlager said the offending was serious in the eyes of the court, and was aggravated by the fact it was the second incident with the same person.

"It's a really concerning act," he said. "It's really abhorrent type behaviour what I read here."

"You have to understand in terms of domestic violence, it's a scourge in the community. Its often young men directed toward women, treating them as in their control or as property or in a way in which simply no male should ever do toward a woman.

"People who do venture into this type of behaviour have to expect serious consequences."

He said it was clear alcohol seemed to be a factor in relation to his offending, but had taken steps to address this issue. Mr Olischlager however warned "If you can't control yourself, don't drink".

McGhee was convicted and sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order, which requires him to be supervised by Community Corrections.

The conditional release order imposed last year was revoked and McGhee was fined $600.

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