Busselton man Lee Wayne Johnson jailed for repeatedly sending threatening text messages to ex-wife

A South West man has been jailed for repeatedly breaching family violence orders, calling his ex-partner “evil” and “bad” for their son. Busselton father Lee Wayne Johnson was sentenced to nine months prison on Tuesday in Busselton Magistrates Court for five charges of breaching a family violence restraining order. The charges stem from repeated text messages to the mother of his 11-year-old son over December and January calling her “evil”, a bad mother, “a greedy” and “cheeky dog” and he would ruin her life. The text messages breached a final conduct agreement order following the dissolution of their relationship and breached a six-month jail term suspended for nine months from June 2021 for breaches against the same woman. Defence lawyer Michael Laurino told the court his client’s latest text messages were spoken in the heat of an argument rather than out of true meaning and he now had insight and remorse for his actions. Magistrate Benjamin Tyers said he had no choice but to send Johnson to prison, given his repeated breaches in a family violence context. “People in the community need to be aware there are very much implications for said behaviour,” he said. “Family violence is much broader than physical violence, it involves behaviour that coerces and controls a family member, in this case your ex-wife, or make them fearful. “Sending messages that you’ll ruin her life, that she’s evil, things of that nature are simply wrong and illegal.” Triggering his suspended imprisonment order, Johnson’s new charges added another three-months to the original six-month term and was made eligible for parole. As he was led into custody, family members sobbed as they told Johnson they loved him, reminded him he was a good man and told Mr Tyers his decision was “so wrong”.