Ian Albert Lomas: Kojonup man gets two years jail for terrifying DV ordeal and bilateral jaw fracture

A Kojonup shearer has been sentenced to prison after taking his ex-partner and their two children on a terrifying drive through the Wheatbelt and threatening to kill her and breaking a teenager’s jaw in two places. Ian Albert Lomas, 27, appeared in Albany District Court on February 26 on two charges of threatening to kill and unlawful assault. On September 26, Lomas punched his ex-partner in the face multiple times and threatened to kill her. The ordeal began when Lomas’s ex-partner came to pick up the kids and Lomas got in the back of her car and refused to get out, violating a family violence restraining order. The victim complied, not wanting to cause a scene, and drove him and their children to the showgrounds at his request, where they shared a cigarette. As they were leaving, Lomas stole the ex-partner’s keys and phone, questioning her over texts to another person she had been seeing, before threatening to run her over if she didn’t get in the car. Instead of driving to her mother’s house as promised, Lomas turned onto Albany Highway in the opposite direction and told the victim he would kill her and she would never see her family again. While pulled over to let the two children use the toilet on the side of the highway, his ex-partner asked to be taken home. Lomas told her to get back in the car and punched her in the face. The victim screamed for help while they were driving through Williams about five minutes later but Lomas drowned out her screams by beeping the car horn. The victim punched Lomas in the nose and he punched her twice in the eye. They then booked a room at Narrogin Inn where Lomas denied the victim her phone. When police arrived at about 9.19pm, Lomas denied knowing where the victim was. The victim, with visible bruising to her eye and arms, was found inside the room by police in bed with her two children. A few days earlier, on September 23, a heavily intoxicated Lomas punched a 19-year-old co-worker in the face at a party. Lomas, who had drunk 13 beers, punched the victim again before a bystander broke up the fight. The next day, Lomas made a throat-slitting gesture at the victim. The teenager suffered facial swelling, deformed teeth, bruising under his tongue, and a bilateral jaw fracture which required surgery to have plates and screws applied to both fractures. Lomas has been in custody since September 26, 2022. District Court Judge Charlotte Wallace said there a level of persistence in Lomas’ offending against his ex-partner that involved “multiple threats made against the victim, including a threat that you would run her over with the vehicle and that you would both die that night”. Judge Wallace said Lomas used his larger build to intimidate and instill fear in his ex-partner to coerce her into compliance. “She said she was extremely frightened, and that’s why she did comply with those demands,” Judge Wallace said. “She was begging for you to let her out of the vehicle or to drive her home, and you refused to do so. “So that is she was unable to escape the environment to protect her children from what was happening.” Judge Wallace said the attack on the 19-year-old was “completely unprovoked and unwarranted violence in all the circumstances”. Lomas was under the influence of methamphetamine when he committed both sets of incidents, breaching an intensive supervision order that was imposed by Katanning Magistrates Court in August 2022. Judge Wallace imposed a total sentence of two years and six months immediate imprisonment. Lomas will be eligible for parole on September 26, 2024.