Northern Beaches, Sydney: Man’s vulgar questions before terrifying attack on ex-girlfriend’s new partner

WARNING: Distressing content

A petrified woman ran out of a house and down the street of a leafy suburb in Sydney’s northern beaches on an autumn day.

Looking back, she saw her partner on the ground, with her ex-boyfriend on top of him holding what looked to be a knife.

The woman kept running, trying to climb a tree to escape the ordeal before deciding against it and arming herself with a traffic cone in a bid to help her partner.

When she returned to the home, her boyfriend’s white shirt was stained with blood, and her former partner – Joshua Wayne Rook – was apologising to his “best friend” whom he had just stabbed in a jealous rage over his relationship with the woman, who Rook had previously been in a long-term relationship with.

Rook, 33, was jailed for more than a year this week after he admitted to stalking and intimidating his former partner and stabbing the woman’s new boyfriend

Rook and the woman had previously been in a relationship but she had just wanted to be friends with him for about a year before the stabbing, court documents tendered to the court state.

The woman had taken her ex-partner to Rook’s home on the day of the stabbing as she did not feel safe going alone, with Rook having shot down her suggestions to meet somewhere more public like a restaurant to talk.

Once at the northern beaches home, the woman went inside with Rook’s mother while the 33-year-old waited outside with the woman’s new boyfriend, whom Rook described as his “best friend” when speaking with police later that day, according to court documents.

Rook became “agitated” when the man refused his pleading not to “move forwards with her”, going inside and asking the woman whether she loved his friend, “did she f**k (him)”, and if he was “her new boyfriend”, the documents state.

Domestic Violence helplines

The woman asked Rook to calm down and told him she wouldn’t answer him before she ran out the front door, Rook having grabbed a serrated kitchen knife.

The 33-year-old set his sights on his friend, who was still standing by the door.

Rook stabbed the man during a struggle, with the friend at one point falling on his back and kicking his feet up in a bid to put space between he and Rook.

“The offender stood over him for about a minute trying to stab him,” the documents state.

The woman continued to run down the street as the attack unfolded.

“When she looked back, she saw (her partner) on the ground and … the offender on top of him … something in his hand that could have been a knife,” the documents state.

She tried to climb a tree before instead arming herself with a traffic cone and going back to help her boyfriend.

“She of course was petrified, she ran out of the house, almost started climbing a tree outside that’s how frightened she was. You then opened the door and stabbed her current partner,” Judge Karen Stafford said while sentencing Rook in the Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday.

Upon seeing the man bleeding, Rook started “begging” his friend and the woman not to go to the hospital or call the police out of fear he would go to jail, but the man replied he did not care and ultimately sought treatment at the hospital.

Rook was arrested later that evening, telling police the woman had come over to “talk to him about breaking up” but he “snapped” and charged at the woman’s new boyfriend, claiming he had pushed the front door in and walked into the house despite Rook asking him not to come onto the property. Rook told police he was “going through a really bad break up”, the court documents state.

Rook’s mother had also told him “not to lie and to tell the truth” when police queried him about a knife, with Rook denying that he had a knife or stabbing anyone during the altercation and asking if he was going to jail.

Attacker ‘couldn’t accept being told no’

He was later charged and pleaded guilty to intimidation and reckless wounding.

Judge Stafford said Rook had not been provoked during the ordeal, telling the court he was “asking extremely inappropriate questions” before the offences.

She also told the court of his prior domestic violence convictions, noting some of them were “similar” to the attack.

“The facts of the matters in some of them are really quite similar in the lead-up to it, which is essentially you wanting to exercise control over former partners … and then acting, in many respects, in intimidatory or violent fashion when you couldn’t accept being told no,” Ms Stafford told the court.

Ms Stafford could not find evidence that Rook was “genuinely remorseful” but said he had engaged in rehabilitation programs during his time in custody.

She jailed him for 18 months over the stalk/intimidate intend fear physical etc harm charge and two years for the reckless wounding charge.

He will be eligible for release on June 22 this year at the completion of his non-parole period, as his sentence was backdated to take into account time already spent in custody.