Michael James Aris jailed for bashing ex-partner after using son to lure her to petrol station

A Mongols bikie who used his autistic son as “bait” to lure his ex-girlfriend to a petrol station where he brutally beat her then terrorised her has been jailed for four years. Michael James Aris denied ever punching his former partner multiple times, choking or hitting her across the head with a hard object immediately after she arrived at the Bertram service station to collect his nine-year-old boy on September 11, 2020. He also denied orchestrating the ambush claiming he had an alibi for that night – he was with another woman the entire time. But after a four-day trial in WA’s District Court, the jury did not believe him, finding him guilty of bashing then holding the woman captive after she tried to flee from him. However they found him not guilty of threatening to kill her despite accepting that he yelled out: “I’ve got a gun, and it’s loaded” and “I’ll shoot you if you run”. The trial was told the pair ended their on-and-off relationship eight months before that night but the woman still looked after Aris’ son. And it was because of that arrangement she was contacted by Kyle Smith, a friend of Mr Aris’ who also cared for the boy, to collect him. When she arrived at the Thomas Road petrol station, she got out of her silver Hyundai i30 and began to walk towards the boy when Aris, who was on bail for other serious offences at the time, jumped out from the shadows and attacked her. In her evidence, the woman told the trial after Aris, who used to be a Rebels bikie, grabbed her, he began punching her in the face causing her two front teeth to break before hitting her in the head with a hard object. She said at the same time Mr Smith and the boy quickly left. “So I was fighting back,” she told the jury. “I scratched him, then spat my teeth and blood back out at him.” She then testified Aris tried to kiss her before pushing her into the back of her car. “He then pushed something in my side abdomen,” she said. “He said ‘I’ve got a gun and it’s loaded’.” The woman said as she was being forced into the car she threw her keys into the bush because she knew “it was not going to end well” before she made her way to the front seat to escape. “I kept saying I need to pee then got out the front driver’s door,” she said. “I squatted down and pretended pee. Then he said ‘I’ll shoot you if you run, I’ll shoot you’ then I ran.” The woman testified as she ran towards the front of the service station she head a “real loud bang” which she said she believed was a gun shot, before members of the public came to her aid. The trial was told she sustained multiple bruises and abrasions and lost her two front teeth in the attack. In sentencing Aris, Judge Michael Bowden said he accepted there was a degree of pre-meditation in his attack because he lured or was involved in luring his ex to the service station and then attacked er. “The assault was brutal,” he said. “It was over a relatively brief period of time, but it was still… a sustained and ferocious assault. She was vulnerable in the sense that clearly, you’re more powerful, much stronger than her. It was unprovoked, and it occurred in the public place.” He also took into account the profound effect the assault had on the woman, who said in her victim impact statement that she now lived in a “constant state of extreme fear and anxiety”, suffered from panic attacks, anxiety and stress. She also had difficulties with her teeth and felt she had lost her independence as a result of the attack. Judge Bowden jailed Aris for four years, made him eligible for parole and back dated his sentence to September 12, 2020 when he was taken into custody. If you or someone you know is experiencing family violence, phone 1800 RESPECT or the Crisis Care Helpline on 1800 199 008.