A man who acted in a "thuggish, brutish way" by strangled his then-partner while he was holding their infant son has avoided a stint behind bars.
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The 27-year-old, who cannot be named to protect his former partner's identity, was fined in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to multiple offences including unlawful assault and unlawful damage.
The court heard the pair, who were together at the time, were in a car and driving in the Kangaroo Flat area on August 3 last year.
An argument broke out culminating in him driving the car to the house and telling her to get out of the car, when she refused he went around to the rear passenger side and ripped out the baby seat and her phone from the vehicle.
When he threw the phone it smashed the backside of the phone.
He went inside and after she followed him into the home, he pushed her onto the bed which caused a bruise on her leg.
Two days later on the morning of August 5 the pair were in bed when the baby began to cry which the former partner thought was because the infant was hungry.
The man replied "you've got two f...ing arms and legs" and after she could not get the baby to stop crying, he took the child away from her.
Another confrontation then broke out in which he "punched and chocked her" before she fought back and scratched him.
'He could have killed her'
The man's defence lawyer, Robert Morgan, said the man was deeply remorseful of his action on that day and at the time of the assault told the former partner to call the police.
Mr Morgan said the man was already linked in with services to help address his mental health issues and had paid for the damaged phone.
However, police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Martin Friend said with the recent headlines regarding gendered-based violence, a message needed to be sent to would be perpetrators.
"Everybody knows what is going on around the country, he could have gone the extra step and killed her," he said.
Magistrate Russel Kelly said it was only because the man had taken proactive steps in addressing his problems with anger, that he was avoiding an immediate jail term.
Mr Kelly noted that the man's behavior on the day of the assault was "thuggish, brutish".
The magistrate fined the man $750 and sentenced him to an 18 month community corrections order.
