A builder who repeatedly subjected his ex-wife to horrific abuse, including twice while she was pregnant, has narrowly escaped jail.
Brendan Lionel Howe, 35, left court with a fully suspended seven-month prison sentence and a one-year good behavior order, police said. Canberra Times reported.
The victim previously told the court she lived in fear of her husband for years and that he once referred to their unborn child as “that little shit inside you.”
Judge Louise Taylor said in the ACT Supreme Court ruling on Thursday: “The community speaks with one voice when it condemns family violence and deplores its widespread negative effects.”
Howe, who runs builders Homes by Howe, was also ordered to pay a $1,800 fine and perform 50 hours of community service.
Judge Taylor said that rather than showing empathy for his ex-wife, Howe felt “sorry for himself” because of the financial and family impacts of his offending.
Builder Brendan Lionel Howe (pictured), who repeatedly assaulted his ex-wife, including twice while she was pregnant, learned his fate in the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday.
Before his trial began this week, Howe pleaded guilty to aggravated common assault, property damage and two counts of common assault between 2018 and 2022.
“Each of these offenses is common to the offender’s sense of entitlement born of the power he had over the victim,” Judge Taylor said.
In September 2022, when his wife was 34 weeks pregnant, Howe, who was intoxicated, pushed her against their bedroom door and screamed in her face.
‘If you and that little idiot inside you can’t see that I’m the boss and when I want to talk about something, I’m going to talk about it.
‘And she’ll know it and you’ll know it,’ roared Howe, holding his wife by the shoulders, according to agreed-upon facts in the case.
‘I rule the chicken coop of this house. You should worship the damn ground I walk on. You’re a fucking bitch. You are a mutt. I’m the boss,’ he said.
Howe also threatened to kill his wife if she left him.
“The perpetration of violence, typically by men against their female partners, is a common occurrence in this jurisdiction and across the country,” Judge Taylor said.
He said these types of crimes have “life-altering consequences” and that it is rare that a court-imposed sentence in such a case helps victims simply move on and repair their lives.
The judge said Howe “demonstrated his physical dominance and ability to control the victim” with his “truly horrifying reference to her unborn child.”
He said Howe’s words were “deliberately degrading” and showed his “exaggerated sense of self-importance over the victim.”
In his victim impact statement, Howe’s now ex-wife said he cried for half an hour in police station parking lot before going in to report him, which, according to her, was like “lighting a match and setting fire to your own life.”
“You watch it burn before your very eyes and the whole time you are absolutely terrified of what is to come,” she said in her victim impact statement.
The first assault occurred when the victim took one of Howe’s dogs away from him to stop him from squeezing her pimples.
Howe then pushed her against a cabinet and said, “I pay for those dogs, so I’ll do whatever I want.”
In the second assault, in October 2021, Howe shouted at his wife: ‘I’m going to kill you.’
The following month, he committed property damage by hitting and denting a kitchen door.
The victim reported Howe to police in November 2022, who was arrested and spent one night in custody.
She said he “could go from zero to 100 in the blink of an eye” and said that during the final round, she asked herself “what if this was the end?”
After the September 2022 attack, she said there wasn’t a day she didn’t break down on the shower floor crying and that she was “completely devastated and beyond stressed.”
The judge found Howe had not shown genuine remorse for his crimes and said the apology letter he wrote “was carefully worded to avoid a direct connection between his violence and the impact it had specifically on the victim.”
The victim told the ACT Supreme Court (pictured) she lived in fear of Howe for years.
In sentencing him, the judge also concluded that Howe had good prospects for rehabilitation, in part because of his involvement in psychological treatment over the past 18 months and his supporters, some of whom were in court.
He also said the builder accepted responsibility by pleading guilty and followed his strict bail conditions.
Howe first came to public attention two years ago when Governor General David Hurley appeared in a testimonial video for his company..
Hurley quickly apologized for the “mistake”, saying the testimony was made “on the spur of a happy moment” after Homes by Howe made renovations to his private residence in Canberra.
Howe’s good behavior order expires in June 2025, by which time he must have completed his 50 hours of community service.
