Bunbury man narrowly avoids jail after abusing elderly mum’s retirement home carer

A Bunbury man has narrowly avoided jail after abusing a staff member — both online and in person — who was caring for his elderly mother at the retirement home she lives at. Shannon Tassone, 50, appeared in Bunbury Magistrates Court on Thursday where he pleaded guilty to four charges, two of which related to an incident which happened at the retirement village. They were one count of threaten to kill and one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence, with the remaining two offences possessing cannabis and drug paraphernalia. The court was told Tassone was visiting his mother at Bethanie Elanora in Bunbury on May 5 when he started harassing a 52-year-old female employee who looked after his mother. He slammed a door into the staff member, which resulted in her falling to the ground and slamming into a wall. Tassone later that day made a public post about the staff member on Facebook, threatening to kill her and speculating about her sexual orientation. The court was told he had since been banned from the retirement village, with many staff members fearful after his behaviour. Eight days later, during a police search of Tassone’s brother’s house in Withers on an unrelated matter a power cord was found leading from the garage over the fence and into the neighbouring, empty property. Police followed the cord and found Tassone squatting in the empty property smoking cannabis and with smoking implements. Court was briefly adjourned during sentencing because Magistrate Joanne Andretrich needed to speak to correctional services and get more information about Tassone before sentencing. However, Tassone asked for the matter be addressed as quickly as possible as he had “broken his wrist and needed to go to hospital”. After the brief adjournment, Ms Andretrich said the offence was particularly worrying as the victim of the assault was an aged-care worker. “There needs to be a message sent to the community,” she said. “People who work in these facilities are exceedingly rare. They’re very selfless.” Tassone said he didn’t mean to threaten the aged-care worker and he was simply frustrated, but Ms Andretrich did not accept that explanation. “The problem is, when it’s heard or seen by someone else it’s up to them how they feel about it,” she said. The court was told Tassone had a previous criminal record and served a prison sentence in 2012 and 2023, but had no violent criminal history. He was given a 10-month prison term, suspended for 12 months, and was fined $600 for the drug offences.