By Sally Rawsthorne, Jessica McSweeney, Michael McGowan and Josefine Ganko
A 45-year-old man who allegedly stabbed his former girlfriend in the head outside an Alexandria gym had twice breached apprehended domestic violence orders put in place to protect the woman in the lead-up to the attack.
Police charged the alleged attacker Anthony Monteleone on Thursday with wounding with intent to murder and contravening an AVO.
The man is arrested on Thursday over the alleged stabbing. Credit: NSW Police
The stabbing at Alexandria on Wednesday has increased pressure on the Minns government to reform domestic violence and bail laws, and also address knife crime, after a spate of high-profile alleged crimes.
Ten days before the attack, Monteleone had been given a non-custodial 18-month intensive correction order after twice breaching apprehended domestic violence orders put in place to protect the former girlfriend.
A Manly Local Court magistrate had given him the ICO on the same day that police had refused him bail for the two ADVO breaches.
The woman was allegedly stabbed in the car park of Crunch Fitness in Alexandria.Credit: James Brickwood
The conditions attached to his community sentence were supposed to keep Monteleone at least 100 metres away from his former girlfriend at all times. He was also banned from contacting, stalking, assaulting or trying to find her. He also was banned from her work and her home.
NSW Premier Chris Minns on Thursday said the gym incident was “horrifying and shocking”. He vowed to tighten bail laws amid growing community concern about domestic violence, following the death of Forbes mother Molly Ticehurst, whose alleged killer Daniel Billings was on bail at the time of the alleged attack.
“It would be every woman’s worst nightmare to be in that situation [of the Alexandria gym attack], particularly someone who has taken out an apprehended domestic violence order,” he said.
“These events are not rare, either. They are common, and the number and frequency of domestic violence offences in NSW represents an absolute emergency in the state.”
Asked whether the latest stabbing was proof of a failing AVO system, the premier said he was unable to comment specifically about the case but said domestic and family violence reform was essential.
“We do need a change. The scale of the problem is growing, it’s not diminishing and we are not seeing the kinds of positive turnaround you’re seeing in other states, for instance Victoria,” he said.
“The incidence in the community of family and domestic violence, particularly for women, is about 3 per cent nationally. Victoria is well below that in the twos, and NSW is above that at about 3.4 per cent. Those numbers are huge when you consider we’re a population of more than 8 million people.”
Minns played down the likelihood of major reforms around expanded ankle bracelet monitoring, saying the high number of incidents of violence against women, coupled with the limited data on its effectiveness, meant the government was more focused on bail reform.
Almost 40,000 apprehended domestic violence orders (ADVO) have been issued in NSW in the past 12 months.
“What we are looking at in terms of our intervention is the bail remand question, particularly for high-risk offenders,” he said, “because under those circumstances, we know the offender is locked up while awaiting trial.”
Police had first put an interim ADVO in place to protect the woman from Monteleone on April 20. He breached the orders twice over the next two weeks.
On April 29, he was picked up by police in the early hours for breaching the order. They refused him bail at Manly Police Station that same day.
In his first appearance, Monteleone immediately pleaded guilty and was given an 18-month intensive correction order to be served in the community – meaning he was allowed to walk out of Manly Local Court.
Ten days later, investigators say he stabbed the 39-year-old woman in the neck, back and ear in the car park of Alexandria’s Crunch Fitness.
Police say the pair had previously had a “very short domestic relationship”, and the man handed himself into Dee Why station early on Thursday.
The woman was left with serious injuries after the attack on O’Riordan Street about 12.30pm on Wednesday, and is recovering in hospital after the ordeal.
Police believe a kitchen knife was used to carry out the attack.
The accused will appear in Manly Local Court on Friday.
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