Delwyn Daniel Barnes: Breaches order with 121 calls to partner from Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison

A prisoner harassed his partner by calling her 121 times from jail and in doing so, breached a family violence restraining order a court was told. Delwyn Daniel Barnes, 47, repeatedly breached the order by calling the woman from Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison, making 121 calls in nine months. While the calls were “amicable and friendly” with no threats or aggression, both the defence and magistrate agreed the number of calls in the context of the order would have been “harassing.” Some of the calls went unanswered while others went for as long as 10 minutes. Barnes pleaded guilty to 53 charges of breaching the order when he appeared in Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court on Thursday. His lawyer, via an audio link, conceded the offending was a blatant disregard of a court order. The lawyer conceded as a current sentenced prisoner with his term ending in September, Barnes’ record did him “no favours”. He pointed out the victim must have either had her number added to Barnes’ call list, or approved it being added, and had been sending messages to the prison requesting he contact her. He said her actions “encouraged and enticed” the offending. His lawyer explained that Barnes’ childhood trauma led to a drug and alcohol abuse spiral. Magistrate William Yoo granted Barnes a 25 per cent discount to his sentence for his early guilty pleas and noted his disadvantaged upbringing. He sentenced him to two months jail to be served concurrently with the sentence he is already serving. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)