Former AFL champion Daniel Kerr has avoided jail for inflicting terrifying violence on his ex-partner over a six-year period.
The WA District Court was told that Kerr, 41, brother of Matildas star Sam Kerr, had strangled and assaulted his ex-partner several times and had used controlling, emotionally and financially abusive coercive behavior between 2013 and 2019.
During Friday’s sentencing, Judge Wendy Gillon said Kerr had been suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness at the time of the offending and suspended a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for two years.
The former West Coast Eagles player was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in November 2022 and the court said he could have been suffering from associated symptoms for at least five years.
Former AFL champion Daniel Kerr, brother of Matildas star Sam Kerr, avoided jail for inflicting terrifying violence on his ex-partner over a six-year period (the 41-year-old is seen leaving the District Court of WA on Friday).
Kerr, pictured with his sister Sam, pleaded guilty to persistently engaging in family violence against his ex-partner and mother of his children in March.
Judge Gillon said that at the time of the offending Kerr was unwell and unable to recognize his illness, but since his diagnosis he had received regular treatment.
“He spent the last year under strict bail conditions, for which he has worked hard. “It is in the community’s interest that you continue your rehabilitation,” she said.
The court was told the couple’s relationship was marred by Kerr’s drug and alcohol use, and his behavior worsened during their time together.
The state prosecutor told the court that in January 2014, Kerr’s ex-partner was moving into his house when they got into a verbal argument.
The victim left and went to a friend’s house, at which time Kerr burned her clothes and cut her bed in half with a chainsaw.
On another occasion, Kerr punched her ex-partner in the face while holding the keys in her hand, leaving a large cut on her face.
The court was told he then licked the blood off the keys.
In another incident, five months after the couple had a child, Kerr strangled his partner while she was holding their baby.
He controlled her finances, routinely checked her phone, prevented her from leaving the house and on one occasion dragged her out of bed by her hair.
His defense lawyer Kate Turtley-Chappel said Kerr accepted the facts and took full responsibility for the crime which consisted of violence, threats, intimidation, verbal and emotional abuse.
Ms Turtley-Chappel said domestic violence was a scourge on the community and there was nothing she could say to change that.
Roger Kerr, a former AFL player and coach in his own right, is seen leaving the field.
The former AFL star (pictured leaving court on Friday) will not have to wear an ankle bracelet as he complies with current treatment.
He said the only appropriate sentence was imprisonment and Kerr took full responsibility for his behavior but asked the court to suspend it.
“The grievance is disturbing and alarming, that is accepted,” he said.
“It would have been terrifying for the victim.”
In a victim impact statement, her ex-partner said that while she had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, she was no longer afraid of Kerr now that he was receiving treatment.
In sentencing, Judge Gillon told the former AFL champion: “You have suffered a considerable fall from grace, Mr Kerr,” and accepted Kerr was remorseful.
He said that during the six years the couple were together, the offending had become more serious and the victim had become more vulnerable as she became the mother of his child.
Judge Gillon also noted that Kerr had rebuilt his relationship with his family and assumed that many apologies would have been necessary, as Kerr nodded his head in the dock.
Kerr retired from the AFL in 2013 after playing 220 games for the West Coast Eagles (pictured being carried from the ground after their final game in Hobart)
In the photo, the damage caused to Daniel Kerr’s parents’ house in Kardinya.
“Everyone has the right to be safe in their own home, happy and well cared for,” he said.
An order was then issued labeling Kerr a “serial family violence offender,” but because he was compliant with treatment he was not required to wear an ankle monitor.
Kerr pleaded guilty to persistently engaging in family violence against his ex-partner and mother of his children in March.
In 2021, he was sentenced to two years in prison for arson after setting fire to a home owned by his parents that caused more than $260,000 worth of damage.
Kerr retired from the AFL in 2013 after playing 220 games for the West Coast Eagles.