A MAN who choked his partner after accusing her of cheating on him has been jailed for eight months.
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The 37-year-old appeared in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to charges including persistently breaching a family violence intervention order.
The court heard on October 18 last year, the victim was in the kitchen with their two children when the man entered, yelling that there was no food in the house for breakfast.
There was an argument between the man and woman, and he grabbed her, squeezing her arm and then throwing her to the ground.
The court heard the woman landed on her forehead, leaving carpet burn and bruises.
The woman was able to leave the home and call the Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre.
The victim went to hospital for her injuries and police arrested the man.
He denied the assault, telling police the couple had verbal arguments on a daily basis but not physical interactions.
The man told officers he knew there was a family violence intervention order in place. He also said he understood he was on bail at the time of the offending.
The court heard between November 11 and November 31, the man sent the woman 54 texts in contravention of the intervention order.
He also called the woman nine times on December 12.
The court heard then on January 5 this year, the man accused the woman of seeing another man.
A verbal argument started between the two and the man refused to let the woman leave.
The court heard the man grabbed the woman and slapped her. He ripped her car keys out of her hand, damaging the keys.
The man then choked the woman as she yelled for help.
Police arrived a short time later after a neighbour called 000. The man was arrested and he handed his mobile phone to officers.
They found that between December 26 and January 5, the man had contacted the woman through 21 Facebook messages, 20 text messages, and 18 calls.
The man admitted to contacting the woman and being at her home in contravention of the intervention order. He denied the assault and damaging the woman's key.
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Defence lawyer Deniz Yildirim told the court his client had been in custody for 48 days.
Mr Yildirim said the man had been diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and needed treatment for alcohol and cannabis addictions.
The defence lawyer said the man understood there was a zero tolerance approach to assaults and he understood his children would be traumatised from the offending.
Mr Yildirim submitted a sentence of time served in custody with a community corrections order would be appropriate.
But Magistrate Sharon McRae said she did not agree with that submission.
She said the offending was "serious" and "persistent", and that the man had previously failed therapeutic court orders.
"The community does not accept your behaviour is acceptable inside or outside the home environment," Ms McRae said.
"The courts must send out a message specifically to you that this sort of behaviour can't happen, and also to the community at large."
She said the courts needed to respond adequately to breaches of intervention orders, otherwise the community would consider the orders worthless and not worth the paper they were written on.
"You did treat the court order as not worth the paper it's written on," the magistrate said.
Ms McRae said some of the man's breaches were serious and had a serious impact on the victim.
The court heard driving matters, for which the man was also sentenced, also clearly showed a disregard for court orders and a clear disregard for community safety.
Ms McRae sentenced the man to a total of eight months in jail, with 48 days reckoned as already served.
He was also ordered to complete a 12-month community corrections order when released.
The man was banned from holding a licence for five years
Had he not pleaded guilty, the man would have been sentenced to 11 months in jail, followed by a community corrections order.
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