Jack Chambers, 33, from the Sydney suburb of Meadowbank, pleaded guilty in the Shepparton Supreme Court to attempted murder, stalking and five counts of conduct endangering life.
The ramming was the end of several incidents by Chambers against the woman after their four-year relationship ended in October 2022.
Nine days after the end of their relationship, Chambers choked the woman until she was unconscious twice after they met to exchange personal belongings at a Seymour motel.
While squeezing her neck the second time he said “die, I hope you die”.
On January 11, 2023, Chambers drove past her car in a Seymour car park, where she would leave it for work, several times.
The next day, he hired a Toyota Kluger and sat in the same car park for four hours waiting for her to return to her car about 8.15pm before following her as she left Seymour.
He later swerved into the side of her vehicle while travelling at 100km/h, causing her car to spin three times before crashing into a tree on Toolamba Rd at Murchison North.
When she got out, he held her against the bonnet and punched her four times.
The court was told she managed to get away and ran to a Kia Sportage, calling “help, he’s trying to kill me”.
The woman got into the car with a couple and a teenager, before Chambers drove the Kluger head-on into the Kia at 52km/h.
The woman then ran to a second stranger’s car and got in as Chambers approached the Kia saying “I’ve got a gun, I’ll get it out”, before the man in the Kia punched Chambers in the head and Chambers was detained by the group until police arrived about 9.40pm.
Inside the Kluger was a large kitchen knife, as well as letters to his parents and a letter to the woman’s family.
When delivering her jail sentence, Justice Jane Dixon said the letters spoke of Chambers’ intention that both he and the woman would be killed, and that he would like to be cremated with the woman.
The defence noted there had been no history of violence by Chambers before the first choking incident in November 2022.
While the defence said the choking was “spontaneous”, Justice Dixon said the second time he choked her in the motel room was not.
She also said the defence submission that the stalking between January 7 and 12 was because Chambers “just wanted to talk to the woman” was “untenable”, saying Chambers’ behaviour was “sinister”, as he had gone to great lengths to disguise the car he was driving.
She said she was also not persuaded by the defence submission that this was at the “lower end” of gravity for an attempted murder charge.
“This is intimate partner violence,” she said.
Justice Dixon also spoke of a victim impact statement by the woman that told how her “world had been turned upside down” by the offending, and that she still suffered recurring nightmares.
A second impact statement by the woman in the Kia — who received broken ribs in the incident, among other injuries — told how she found it hard to comprehend that she and the two others in her vehicle were “treated as collateral damage” by Chambers in the attack, and that she now didn’t feel safe driving on her own.
Justice Dixon also spoke of how Chambers had been diagnosed with autism and ADHD as a child, and had borderline personality disorder traits.
He also had gambling and alcohol issues.
Justice Dixon referenced a report by forensic psychologist Patrick Newton, which spoke about Chambers having a feeling of hopelessness in the lead-up to the incidents and a rumination that he and the victim should die together and be reunited in the next life.
In handing down a jail term for Chambers, Justice Dixon said with his lack of prior convictions and good work history, his prospects of rehabilitation were “reasonable”.
Chambers was sentenced to 12 years in jail, with a non-parole period of seven years and eight months.
The 777 days he has already spent in pre-sentence detention will count as time already served.
His driver’s licence was also cancelled for three years.
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