An Ararat woman who spent three months randomly harassing a woman was sentenced to imprisonment.
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The woman - who The Advertiser has chosen not to name to protect the victims' identities - appeared at Ararat Magistrates' Court via video link, where she pleaded guilty to 11 offences including burglary, breaching an intervention order and theft.
On Tuesday, October 29, 2019, a witness was walking along Barkly St when they observed the woman inside a clothing store at about 3pm.
The witness saw the woman browsing through the clothing racks, despite the fact the business had been closed to the public since October 15.
The witness called the owner of the store, who went to the rear of the building and saw the woman had smashed bricks to gain access.
Two Ararat police officers arrested the woman inside the business and found her carrying a backpack with about $1000 worth of stolen clothes.
When asked why she was inside the store, the woman said: "I'm bad. I'm broke."
The woman failed to appear in court in November, January and February.
In a separate matter, a personal safety intervention order was issued against the woman in the Ararat Magistrates' Court.
The next day the protected person came home at night and saw the woman walking by her house.
A few days later, the woman walked by the protected person's house and screamed: "You're messing with the big girls now." She continued hurling abuse at the protected person's house for about two hours.
The incidents were captured by CCTV.
Later, Ararat police caught the woman standing in the protected person's driveway, in breach of the intervention order.
She was arrested and bailed.
Days later, the woman returned to the protected person's home and was recorded by CCTV standing at the front gate.
The next week the woman returned again, this time opening the protected person's mailbox and throwing the contents across the front garden.
Again, the incident was captured by CCTV.
Finally, later in the month the woman stood outside the protected person's home at 4.20am and yelled: "If I'm coming to get you, I'll cut your head off and I'll burn your house down".
She was arrested on the same day, when officers found a ziplock bag containing cannabis in her possession.
Before appearing in court, the woman had spent 15 days in custody waiting for her hearing.
Magistrate Simon Zebrowski said the court issues intervention orders to protect the community from behaviour like the woman's.
"You have to respect the order," Mr Zebrowski said.
Mr Zebrowski fined the woman $100 for possession of the cannabis and ordered the drugs to be destroyed. He also sentenced her to 15 days of imprisonment, the length of time she had spent in remand.
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