Man who tied noose around ex-partner’s neck and dragged her behind car back in jail for more domestic violence

A Great Southern man who was jailed in 2015 for tying a noose around his ex-partner’s neck and dragging her behind his car has been sent to prison again for nearly five years for violence against another woman. Mark Frederick Burt, 52, appeared in Albany District Court on Wednesday accused of shoving his hand into his 43-year-old partner’s mouth and causing “trauma” to her throat before holding her captive overnight in June last year. Burt served five years in prison in 2015 for a string of offences including endangering the life of his ex-partner of 28 years, Sandra Wolfe, by tying one end of a rope about her neck and the other end to the bull bar of his ute, then driving at a jogging pace at their Mt Barker property in 2014. The Mt Barker man ordered Ms Wolfe to run behind the vehicle yelling “run you dog, don't stop or I'll go faster” in the presence of their then 18-year-old son. At the time, Burt was also sentenced for reckless driving after he spotted Ms Wolfe driving on Albany Highway rammed her her off the road, causing her car to roll twice and land on its roof. Burt — who arrived at court on Wednesday on crutches — was set to face a 12-person jury, but he changed his plea to guilty at the start of the second day of the trial. Court resumed without a jury on Friday, when Judge Linda Petrusa sentenced Burt to four years and seven months imprisonment for one count of deprivation of liberty and one count of doing an act which endangered life, safety or health. He was made eligible for parole after serving two years and seven months of his sentence, which was backdated to July 2 last year. On the first day of this week’s trial, State prosecutor Edward Fitzpatrick told the court Burt “shoved” his hand down his then-partner’s throat, causing her to struggle to breathe after an argument inside a caravan on a friend’s Redmond property. He then detained the woman in the caravan, holding her down and refusing to let her go despite her pleas. The court was told on June 19-20 last year, Burt and his partner of about six months were in a caravan a short distance from the main house when Burt began berating and yelling at the victim. “Mr Burt got angry, there was an argument, he sat on (the woman), over her chest with his legs either side of her and put his right hand over her mouth so she couldn’t talk,” Mr Fitzpatrick told the court. Mt Barker man sentenced to five years in prison for dragging ex-partner behind car and ramming her off the road. WATCH: The shocking moment a man rams his ex-partner’s car and causes it to flip Burt then forced the side of his hand inside her mouth causing her to bite down. “The victim was scared because she couldn’t breathe,” Mr Fitzpatrick said. Burt then grabbed a blanket, wrapped it around his fingers and shoved them down her throat, injuring her tongue. Mr Fitzpatrick said Burt told the woman “I told you to shut up, I told you to shut up,” before strangling her for 10-20 seconds. The woman, crying and scared, tried to flee the caravan, but Burt grabbed her by the hair and dragged her towards the bedroom. He pushed the woman onto the bed and refused to let her go, holding her back against him and insisting he wanted to “cuddle” her. She was forced to stay in that position until the morning. Mr Fitzpatrick said Burt showed “very little, if any remorse” and “no compassion, no empathy — it was just about control again.” “He has no respect for women at all...it appears they are his property,” Mr Fitzpatrick said. On June 23, the woman attended Albany Health Campus where her throat injuries were examined. Her uvula — the fleshy extension hanging above the throat — and connective tissue under her tongue were damaged. Burt was arrested in Spencer Park on July 2, later denying the accusations to police and claiming any injury was caused by “vigorous oral sex”. Defence lawyer Elizabeth Hamilton told the court Burt decided to change his plea after hearing his victim was committed to giving evidence at the trial. It was then that the “aspect of remorse kicked in” and he did not want to “put her in the position” to take the stand, Ms Hamilton said. Through his lawyer, Burt claimed the pair were at the Redmond property to get away from her ex-partner who was “physically and electronically stalking” her. He denied that he had been violent, but said he had “got to a point where I believed she was involved with other men’,” according to Ms Hamilton. She said her client had witnessed “significant” violence by his father to his mother and was repeatedly assaulted as a child. Judge Petrusa acknowledged that witnessing domestic violence as a child would have been horrific, but she said Burt’s history of domestic violence was “extreme”. His record showed his recent actions were not an isolated incident but part of a pattern of violence. “You were the man she should have trusted and should have been able to rely on to help keep safe but instead you were her greatest source of danger,” Judge Petrusa said. “Your record makes it clear you are currently a danger to any woman who is in an intimate personal relationship with you. “You remain a danger to women and the community need to be protected from you.” Burt’s victim was granted a lifetime restraining order.