Former West Coast Eagles player Daniel Kerr has avoided more jail time after pleading guilty to breaching a violence restraining order by sending his ex-partner a drunken text message.
Kerr, 33, entered the plea in Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday via video link from Hakea prison where he has been for more than two weeks since his arrest over the May 7 incident.
The court heard Kerr texted: "I know you're happy. If it does not work out I'll drop everything for a coffee, or just us, if fatso breaks up."
His lawyer Seamus Rafferty told the court his client was intoxicated at the time but the text message was not threatening or abusive.
"It was not of a nasty nature," he said.
Mr Rafferty added the contact went both ways.
He said Kerr had turned his life around in the past year and "his life is back on track in a really significant way".
Kerr was given a nine-month community based order, which will include counselling for drugs, alcohol and domestic violence.
He was also fined $1000 for breaching his suspended prison term, which expires in July, and must complete it.
That sentence was handed down in July last year for dousing two people in petrol and threatening to set them on fire at a Glendalough home in November 2014.
The magistrate said it would be unjust to activate the suspended prison term.
He noted the breach of the violence restraining order had a "family dimension to it", and it happened towards the end of his suspended jail term.
A second charge relating to another text message Kerr sent was dropped.
Members of Kerr's family were in court but declined to comment to reporters as they left.
Kerr played 220 games for the Eagles and was part of the premiership team in 2006.
He retired at the end of the 2013 season.
Share
