Fire hero jailed

A YARRA VALLEY fire fighter who was hailed as a hero after the Black Saturday fires has been jailed after pleading guilty to a series of sickening attacks on his partner.
Paul McCuskey, 40, was sentenced to five years and six months in jail after pleading guilty in the County Court of Victoria in April to criminal damage, intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury and recklessly causing serious injury.
The assaults on Jeannie Blackburn, 46, took place over eight months between November 2006 and 17 June 2007, when Ms Blackburn was kicked in the head causing permanent loss of sight in her left eye.
McCuskey and Ms Blackburn had been living together since 2004 but later separated.
As a volunteer firefighter on Black Saturday, McCuskey helped to save an elderly woman and her pets from the fires which were burning in the remote Cambarville forest near Marysville.
Sentencing McCuskey on 4 May, Judge Wendy Wilmoth said there had been a history of alcohol-fuelled abuse over the years escalating to serious physical assaults.
Judge Wilmoth said on one occasion McCuskey ignored pleas from his pregnant partner to stop after he abused, punched and kicked her in the stomach.
“You did not stop but continued to slap Ms Blackburn and dragged her around the room abusing her,” she said.
She said McCuskey was still kicking Ms Blackburn in the stomach when a friend intervened.
Judge Wilmoth described two more callous assaults where McCuskey left Ms Blackburn lying injured and alone.
On the first occasion Ms Blackburn was left in the driveway of her home unable to walk because of a damaged ligament after McCuskey dragged her from a car.
In a separate incident he left her lying on the lounge room floor after kicking her and hitting her in the head. She was left bloodied and unable to see out of one eye and in terrible pain.
She said McCuskey had a history of heavy drinking culminating in excessive drinking in recent years and which was further complicated by a long and continuing history of mood disturbance and difficulty in managing anger and conflict.
She said McCuskey was not without some redeeming features citing his contribution to the community as a member of the CFA and his genuine remorse and shame at his actions.
“However, these are very serious crimes carried out in a brutal and cruel way,” she said.
“They call for a sentence of imprisonment that sternly denounces this type of behaviour and sends a clear message to others in the community that it will not be tolerated and will be punished severely.”
Judge Wilmoth told McCuskey the maximum penalty for recklessly causing serious injury was 15 years’ imprisonment.
She sentenced him to six months on the criminal damage charge, intentionally causing injury – two years, recklessly causing injury – 18 months and recklessly causing serious injury – three years and six months – a total of seven years and six months, reduced by two years with cumulative sentencing to an effective sentence of five years and six months.
McCuskey will be eligible for parole after three years.