The 32-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted and fined $1500 in the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday for unlawful assault and making a threat to kill.

Prosecutor Brett Sheppard said the incident on September 10, last year, followed an argument between the man and his partner about content on her phone which caused him to believe she was cheating on him. 

The court heard the man twisted his partner’s arm behind her back, saying “I could snap your arm if I wanted to” and choked her before letting go when his father, who was also present at the time, intervened.

Senior Sergeant Sheppard said when the victim reached for her phone, the man pushed her into a glass door, which shattered, causing her to sustain a cut to her calf requiring hospital treatment.

The court heard the man twice grabbed the woman by the throat during the incident and said “I’m going to kill you, you’re getting something you deserved a long time ago”.

Acting for the man, solicitor Kim Parker said her client had only grabbed his partner around the throat once and that she had jumped on his back causing him to grab her by the wrists to defend himself.

Ms Parker said the man, who suffered from mental health issues and had issues with alcohol, had been drinking prior to the offending.

She said he was not taking his medication at the time because it made him sleepy and unable to work, but he had since began participating in a rehabilitation program.

In imposing the fine, magistrate Jonathan Klestadt said if not for his guilty plea, the man would be facing the possibility of prison time, and took into account his lack of history of similar offending and the steps he had subsequently taken to address his issues.

“Unless you have been living in a cave, it could not have escaped your attention that this sort of conduct is completely unacceptable to the community,” he said.

Mr Klestadt said while the victim had suffered a “relatively minor wound” it took “little imagination” to see how the offending could have resulted in more serious injury or death.

“No relationship is free from dispute, but to engage in physical conduct to the extent that it was involved this time ... has enormous risk,” he said.