A man who was recently jailed after pleading guilty to breaching apprehended violence orders 60 times will spend an extra month behind bars. Daniel Stewart, 24, had his non-parole period extended by a month when he pleaded guilty in Nowra Local Court on December 6 to breaching an apprehended violence order and attempting to breach the order. Police evidence to the court said Stewart called a relative from the South Coast Correctional Centre twice on consecutive days in July, asking her to connect a woman he was prohibited from contacting. On the first occasion they spoke about drugs and what they would do together once Stewart was released from custody in a discussion that was sometimes heated, the court was told. On the second occasion the woman in question could not be contacted. Stewart's lawyer Emma Harrison told the court the calls came at a time of stress while her client was dealing with his mother's loss. She said the calls came after Stewart pleaded guilty to the earlier offences but before an appeal to the District Court had been heard, and argued they would not have resulted in an further jail time had they been included in the appeal. However Magistrate Lisa Viney pointed out the latest offences were exactly the same as ones he was jailed for earlier in the year. She said apprehended violence orders were "not something you can choose to ignore", with Stewart proving himself to be a repeat offender even while in custody.
