A MAN who subjected his partner to abhorrent physical violence while she was pregnant and after the birth of their child has been jailed.
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The 23-year-old faced charges relating to three separate incidents, including one where he headbutted his partner and another where he threw her to the ground and knocked her out.
On Monday he was sentenced by magistrate Bruce Williams to 16 months in jail with a non-parole period of 10 months.
Police facts tendered to the court described an incident on October 25 last year when the accused sat on the victim's legs and slapped her face with an open hand after she became upset that he had accessed pornography on his phone. The victim was pregnant at the time.
On December 31 the man grabbed the woman's head and smashed her face into his - as she held their baby - following an argument about a tanning product she ordered online.
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He then threw the woman to the bed and applied pressure to her throat.
And earlier this year the man threw the woman to the ground and straddled her stomach following an argument over her wearing a bikini when she took their child to the pool. The woman lost consciousness and woke up covered in blood.
Refusing her requests for an ambulance, the accused drove the woman to hospital and, on the way, the pair agreed to tell hospital staff she had fallen from a ute.
At the hospital she was treated for deep lacerations to her lip, a displaced fracture to her nose, swelling and bruising around the eye and damage to her teeth.
The woman initially stuck by the concocted story when questioned by police but when a friend later asked her "did he do this to you?" she said "yes" and police were called again.
The accused's solicitor, Shane Cunningham, told the court the assault on New Year's Eve occurred after the couple had been drinking.
He said the complainant was trying to drive away from the house with the child and the accused intervened. Mr Cunningham said while there was no suggestion that what flowed from that had been justified, "it put the argument in context".
Mr Cunningham said the most serious of the assaults, occurring earlier this year, came after his client had concerns about the type of swimwear his partner was wearing.
An argument between the pair escalated into a physical assault.
"[My client] has little recollection," Mr Cunningham said. "He blacked out but accepts his head came into contact with the victim."
Mr Cunningham also spoke of a social media campaign against his client which had resulted in him being assaulted.
Director of Public Prosecutions solicitor Kim Stanley said a full-time custodial sentence was the only appropriate outcome.
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She said the fundamental issue of why the accused had sought to control his partner and violently punish her for expressing her free will had not been addressed, and that the Facebook post set up by the complainant was to assist other domestic violence victims.
In sentencing, Mr Williams said all offences were serious examples of domestic violence, aggravated by the fact they occurred in the presence of a child and in the victim's home.
He said as a young pregnant woman living on an isolated property, the victim should expect her husband to care and comfort her. "Instead he seriously assaults her," he said.
Mr Williams said "it doesn't matter one hoot" what she wore to the pool.
"And what does she get? A headbutt to the face and her face split open."
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