Gangland widow sentenced

MELBOURNE gangland widow Wendy Peirce has been sentenced to jail over threats to two police witnesses in the case of the man charged with murdering her husband.

Peirce, 50, threatened earlier this year to seriously injure the women, who had been girlfriends of her husband, Victor, who was acquitted of murdering two policemen in the Walsh Street killings in 1988.

Peirce sent a thumbnail picture of herself to one woman's Facebook page with messages that included threatening to "blow your f---ing head off".

Melbourne Magistrates Court heard yesterday that also in February this year she had told the second woman that she knew her address and also where her son went to school.

Senior Constable Roz O'Grady, prosecuting, said Peirce later told a detective from the Purana gangland taskforce that "everything is getting to me".

"I just want to kill anyone, and when I say kill, I just want to do damage to people," Senior Constable O'Grady said Peirce had warned.

Victor Peirce was shot in Port Melbourne in 2002. A man who has pleaded not guilty is awaiting trial on a charge of murdering him.

The court heard yesterday that Wendy Peirce, a mother of four — including three children to her former husband — told police of the threats after she made them. Peirce pleaded guilty to charges including threatening to inflict serious injury and stalking.

Defence lawyer Victor Andreou said Peirce was a teenager when she met her future husband and began a relationship that lasted 30 years.

Mr Andreou said Peirce, who was ostracised by her family over the relationship, did not want to publicly reveal matters contained in a report by a psychologist, who found she was remorseful.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Dan Muling described the threats as "troubling and outrageous".

Sentenced to six months' jail, Peirce, of Port Melbourne, was freed on bail pending an appeal.