Bunbury man Benjamin Graham Tamm avoids jail for threatening calls to ex-partner, defecating in police lock-up

Despite avoiding jail for making incessant and threatening phone calls to his ex-partner, an Eaton man’s behaviour while in a police lock-up has been lambasted by a South West magistrate. Benjamin Graham Tamm appeared in Bunbury Magistrates Court on Thursday and was placed on a conditionally suspended imprisonment order that included wearing a GPS tracking device. He was fined $1000 for offences including aggravated stalking, breaching a family violence restraining order and disorderly behaviour in a police lock-up. The court was told Tamm used a private phone number to make more than 90 calls to his ex-partner in the space of several hours on the evening of October 12. During the calls, Tamm did not identify himself but made numerous threats to sexually assault his ex-partner, kill her and then commit suicide. In the calls, Tamm could be hearing saying “you’ll find out who I am, I’m in your street, I will kill you c...”. Tamm could be heard in another call saying “you belong with me s...” and “if I can’t have you, no one can, I will just have to kill you then me”. The court was told that in late September, before the offending, Tamm was served with a family violence restraining order that protected the victim after their six-month relationship ended. When Tamm was arrested at his Carey Park home for breaching the restraining order he was taken to Bunbury Police Station. In the lock-up he defecated inside the cell and smeared his faeces on several objects and used it to write messages on the walls. The messages read “cops get rapped (sic) in jail, f... cops” along with the words “pig” and “s...”. Although Tamm was taken by police to another cell, he then urinated on the walls of that cell. In submissions, the court was told while Tamm had a limited recollection of his offending because of his intoxication, he regretted his behaviour. Tamm’s duty lawyer Alex Collins told the court Tamm had heard the victim had allegedly “talked badly” of him, leading to him incessantly contacting her. In sentencing, Magistrate Joanne Andretich said it was not OK for Tamm to subject his former partner to such degrading and terrifying behaviour simply because he could not accept that she no longer wanted to be with him. Ms Andretich also slammed Tamm’s behaviour in the police lock-up. “Defecating inside a cell and using your faeces to smear it over the water fountain and write on the walls is totally unacceptable and just despicable,” she said. Tamm’s 15-month prison term was conditionally suspended for 18 months and included program and supervision requirements as well as an order to be subject to GPS tracking to prevent him from going near the victim’s home or workplace for six months. Tamm was also ordered to pay court costs and a $500 compensation order to WA Police.