Millionaire who bashed ex after she found a video of him having sex with another woman is sentenced

A millionaire pub baron who bashed his socialite ex-girlfriend after she found a video of him having sex with another woman has been sentenced to a year of home detention in his luxury apartment instead of jail. 

Phillip De Angelis, the youngest member of a hotel-owning family, last year pleaded guilty to five ‘cowardly’ domestic violence-related charges. 

In one incident, he left his ex-girlfriend Janelle ‘Nellie’ Tilley, 53, crying in a pool of blood on the floor after he threw a cigarette lighter at her in 2016.

He punched her in the mouth on another occasion and battered a bathroom door in a bid to get her after she discovered a sex tape with another woman on his phone. 

De Angelis, 37, pleaded guilty last year to five ‘cowardly’ domestic violence-related charges to his ex-girlfriend Janelle ‘Nellie’ Tilley 

De Angelis had his lawyer argue for home detention and community service to avoid jail – but he was on Wednesday sentenced to 12 months home detention at his Bondi Beach apartment in Sydney, the Daily Telegraph reported. 

He was further sentenced to 300 hours of community service, and must wear a monitoring bracelet and abstain from drugs and alcohol.

His legal team lodged an appeal against the sentence arguing it was too severe and that an intensive corrections order without the home detention component was more suitable. 

Magistrate Philip Stewart granted the De Angelis bail before his appeal hearing in March.

He has to abide by bail conditions but does not have to start his home detention. 

Magistrate Stewart expressed concern about having De Angelis out in the community without supervision due to his previous violent offences. 

The 38-year-old faced Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday, where he was sentenced to 12 months home detention at a Bondi ocean view apartment

De Angelis was further sentenced to 300 hours of community service, and must wear a monitoring bracelet and abstain from drugs and alcohol.

De Angelis (left) and Ms Tilley (right) were in a relationship from late-2015 through to early-2017

On Tuesday,  Phillip Boulten SC asked the court if De Angelis could do community service for one day a week over the next 18 months, which would allow him to continue working fulltime.

The commitment would equal to 400 hours of service, Mr Boulten argued.  

During De Angelis’s hearing last year, Mr Boulten said his client accepted that his behaviour was violent and was as a result of drugs and alcohol. 

‘He accepts he was the violent offender… [and] he accepts the offending occurred in a context of his dysfunction, drinking too much [and] using illegal drugs,’ Mr Boulten said.

‘The offender has accepted that what he did was seriously wrong. His response to his own misconduct has been thorough.’

The lawyer said De Andelis had made attempts to get rehabilitate. 

‘He completed eight weeks at The Cabin in Thailand,’ he said. ‘It is an intensive course he went through, a very thorough process and he did extremely well.’

‘He accepts he was the violent offender… [and] he accepts the offending occurred in a context of his dysfunction, drinking too much [and] using illegal drugs,’ Mr Boulten said of De Angelis’ behaviour in a hearing late last year

In a bid to overcome his drug and alcohol addiction, De Angelis spent eight weeks at The Cabin in Thailand (pictured) – a $10,000-a-night rehabilitaion facility popular with celebrities

Surrounded by his parents Arch and Robyn, and brothers Peter and Marc, De Angelis sat quietly in the court as Mr Boulten submitted why his client should avoid jail time. 

In an effort to explain what led De Angelis to often act out violently towards Ms Tilley, Mr Boulten told the court there was ‘something different’ about the pair’s romance.

He claimed that while his client had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse, there was no track record of violent relationships to that point.

Mr Boulten told the court that on three separate occasions in the past his client had been charged with having alcohol in his system while driving. 

He also revealed De Angelis was previously charged with deal and supply cocaine, but no conviction was recorded ‘[because] it was certainly not a commercial level’.

The pair were in an 18-month relationship before De Angelis was charged with assaulting Ms Tilley and an AVO was taken out against him 

‘Seeing his (De Angelis’) enraged face is one thing I’ll never forget. I don’t even remember seeing the lighter come flying at me,’ Ms Tilley (right) said of the night he threw the lighter

The court heard the millionaire had drunk heavily and regularly during his 18-month relationship with Ms Tilley.

Social media photos of the pair from the time show them living it up on a European holiday, drinking by the pool and island hopping throughout Greece.

But while the portrayed the perfect lifestyle, behind the scenes the pair’s relationship was often completely different.

Ms Tilley tearfully told the court last year about her ex-boyfriend’s ‘enraged face’ when he threw a cigarette lighter at her on the night of September 14, 2016.

‘That night I experienced unwanted violence from a man whose anger and violence was unpredictable, fast and terrifying,’ Ms Tilley said.

‘Seeing his enraged face is one thing I’ll never forget. I don’t even remember seeing the lighter come flying at me.’

The impact of the cigarette lighter hitting Ms Tilley caused her to bleed heavily and left her with a permanent scar above her right eye.

In happier times, De Angelis and Tilley pose for a photo together while on holiday in Positano 

Phillip Boulten SC (right), who was representing De Angelis (left), told the court in the wake of his split with Ms Tilley his client did ‘an enormous amount to address his problems’

The court heard in a separate incident after a night out at a restaurant, De Angelis hit Ms Tilley in the mouth before forcefully pushing her head into a taxi seat. 

In his submissions to the court, Mr Boulten agreed the cigarette lighter incident was a mid-range offence but claimed an intensive corrections order was the appropriate sentence for De Angelis.

‘I can’t ever remember having a case where the weapon was a Bic cigarette lighter,’ Mr Boulten said.

‘His immediate response was to do what he could… he was the one that took her to the doctor, stayed with her at the hospital, he was the one that took her home.

‘He paid the medical costs and he truly does feel very ashamed for what happened.’

Mr Boulten submitted his client had thrown the cigarette lighter in a ‘flinging’ action and ‘certainly not with a measured [amount of] force’.

But having inspected the permanent scar above Ms Tilley’s eye just a few weeks prior, Magistrate Stewart disagreed. 

‘It’s not a mere breaking of the skin. If it’s a Bic lighter, I would draw an inference there was a fair bit of force involved,’ he said. 

‘I have to also consider the injury to Ms Tilley, the nature of the injury and ongoing trouble. There is a clear and visible mark on her forehead.’  

De Angelis was supported in court by his parents Arch and Robyn (left) and other family