A former Essendon AFL player subjected a woman to brutal assaults where he bashed, choked, spat at and poured beer over her in a nearly two-year nightmare.
Andrew Lovett, who played for the Bombers from 2005 to 2009, fronted the Dandenong Magistrates Court from Fulham Prison in a white T-shirt on Thursday afternoon.
The 39-year-old pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including multiple assaults – one of which involved kicking – recklessly causing injury and breaching court orders between February 2020 and December last year.
The 2005 Anzac Day medallist became “more and more volatile” during the course of their relationship, the court was told.
In January 2021 he sent the woman a text after an argument that read: “I hope you, your mum and your nan pass away, you c**t.”
At the time her grandmother was ill.
In another shocking incident, Lovett attacked the woman after a night out where they watched his former team Essendon play Hawthorn at Marvel Stadium in March 2021.
He started to abuse the woman after he showered because of a message xjmtzywhe found after going through her phone. The former footballer then threw her phone at the wall and repeatedly punched the woman in the head.
As she was prone on the shower floor he kicked her repeatedly before she went unconscious and woke up as blood poured from her face, the court was told.
A month later a heavily intoxicated Lovett returned to the woman’s home from an AFL function and spat at the woman and poured a beer over her as she lay in bed, prosecutor Andrew Sprague said.
Other times he choked and punched her and on one occasion he slammed her head into a steering wheel while she drove him around, the court was told.
His victim bravely told the court that she was “living in a nightmare” and realised the footballer’s true nature.
“It didn’t take long for the fairytale to turn into a horror story,” she told the court.
She explained he left her with torture and heartache after promising her the world, but he had nothing to offer but broken dreams.
The player’s acts destroyed her soul and left her in constant fear, exhausted and isolated, the woman said.
“He was like a vampire feeding off all my energy for him to survive and I was barely surviving,” she said.
Defence lawyer David Grace said the former AFL player unreservedly apologised for his behaviour.
“There is no question that he is ashamed, he is humiliated and he is absolutely remorseful for what he has done to her,” Mr Grace said.
In messages he sent to the woman after she left him, Lovett said no one deserved what he had done to her, the court was told.
“I am deeply, deeply, deeply sorry for what I have put you through,” he said.
Mr Grace argued his client should be sentenced to an aggregate jail term in combination with a community corrections order.
Lovett was remanded in custody and his case will return to court next week.
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