Former AFL champion Daniel Kerr has avoided jail for inflicting terrifying violence on his former partner over a period of six years.
The WA District Court was told that Kerr, 41, the brother of Matildas star Sam Kerr, had choked and assaulted his former partner multiple times and used coercive behaviour that was controlling, emotionally and financially abusive between 2013 and 2019.
During sentencing, Judge Wendy Gillon said Kerr had been suffering an undiagnosed mental illness at the time of the offending and suspended a 4½ year prison term for two years.
Judge Gillon said at the time of the offending Kerr was unwell and could not recognise his illness, but since his diagnosis he had received regular treatment.
“You spent the last year on strict bail conditions, which you have worked hard at,” she said.
“It is in the community’s interest that you continue your rehabilitation.”
The court was told that the couple’s relationship was marred by drug and alcohol use, and Kerr’s behaviour worsened during their time together.
The state prosecutor told the court that in January 2014, Kerr’s former partner was moving into his home when they got into a verbal argument. The victim left and went to a friend’s house, at which point Kerr burned her clothes and cut her bed in half with a chainsaw.
On another occasion, five months after the couple had a child, Kerr strangled his partner while she was holding their infant baby.
His defence lawyer Kate Turtley-Chappel said Kerr accepted the facts and took full responsibility for the offending that 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 would say to sway that.
She said the only appropriate sentence was imprisonment and Kerr took full responsibility for his behaviour, but she asked the court that it be suspended.
“The offending is disturbing and alarming, that is accepted,” she said.
“It would have been terrifying for the victim.”
In a victim impact statement, his former partner said while she had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder she no longer feared Kerr now that he was receiving treatment.
In handing down her sentence Judge Gillon said to the former AFL champion, “You had a considerable fall from grace Mr Kerr,” and accepted that Kerr was remorseful.
She said over the six years the couple were together the offending had become more serious and the victim had become more vulnerable when she became the mother of their child
“All people are entitled to be safe in their own home, happy and well cared for,” she said.
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 jail for arson after he set fire to a house owned by his parents that caused more than $260,000 worth of damage.