A jealous ex-husband has been jailed for 18 years after he tried to murder his former partner and her friend by crashing his car into theirs, and threatened to have his stepdaughter killed.
Shawn Marsh had stalked his ex Kylie for months before the then 53-year-old carried out the ambush on a road near the regional NSW town of Goulburn on May 6, 2023.
‘This offender has shown no remorse or insight into his offending and blames the victim for his conduct,’ Judge Julia Baly said as she handed down the sentence in Goulburn District Court, reported The Daily Telegraph.
The court previously heard that after the pair separated in December 2022, Marsh turned up at uninvited at places his former partner visited, such as cafes and shopping centres.
He also texted her that it was a ‘bad move’ to let her new partner move into her house, a fact he had ascertained by staking out the property.
Marsh also sent a chillingly disturbing letter to one of Kylie’s two daughters from a previous relationship in which he instructed her what she should do following the crash he intended to carry out. It was found by his ex-partner before she read it.
The letter warned Marsh had ‘organised for two scenarios’ – the first of which involved collecting her mother’s life insurance and giving his superannuation to her sister, after which she would be ‘raped only once’ by an unspecified perpetrator.
If she didn’t follow the instructions, Marsh warned she would be ‘kidnapped, raped for four days and then killed’.
On the day of the crash, emergency services were called to Crookwell, 45km northwest of Goulburn, following reports that a SUV and a hatchback had collided head-on.
Marsh had watched the car through binoculars before driving toward it. He intended to hit the car head on but clipped the side, which sent it crashing into a paddock.
The driver of the hatchback, a 59-year-old woman, and her 48-year-old female passenger were both trapped and had to be freed by Fire and Rescue crews.
They were treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to Goulburn Hospital for treatment. The court heard they both suffer long term injuries and trauma.
Marsh, who was uninjured, told officers at the scene it was a ‘domestic situation’.
He was charged with predatory driving, use of an offensive weapon with intent to commit an indictable offence, and contravening a prohibition/restriction in AVO (domestic).
The charges for attempted murder and the threat to kill his stepdaughter were added later.
‘While Mr Marsh maintains his views, blaming the victims, and maintains his self-righteous attitudes to what he did, he does not have good prospects of rehabilitation and is not of a low likelihood to offend again,’ Judge Baly said during sentencing.
‘Women are not possessions belonging to men.’