A man who punched his then partner in the head multiple times when they were in a car together has been convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in Orange Local Court.
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The 29-year-old man who is not named to protect the identity of the victim was, according to court documents, in the car with the woman after drinking at the Ophir Hotel on July 9 this year.
While in the car they got into an argument and the man, who was driving, grabbed the front of the woman's shirt and hit her in the face.
Magistrate David Day was presented with a Sentence Assessment Report and said the argument was about the woman wanting to go to a venue with her friends, but the man could not go with her because he was banned from that venue.
"Alcohol was at work with these offences," Mr Day said noting that the man had consumed three or four schooners.
The woman then pulled on the handbrake and told the man that she wanted to get out of the car, but he prevented her from getting out and drove to her house.
An early plea, first opportunity, I think that's what saves him.
- Magistrate David Day
They did not argue at the house, and he said he would charge his phone then leave.
However, when he went to leave in her car, she followed him out to stop him from driving her car.
She got into the passenger side and pulled on the handbrake, and he punched her multiple times in the side of the head, near her eye.
The woman punched him back and is believed to have caused him to cut his lip.
She was also able to get her keys and throw them onto the grass and her mother called the police.
When the police arrived, the woman came to the door with an ice block held to her face and there was bruising and swelling under her right eye and bleeding to the side of her head.
Solicitor Uzma Sherieff conceded that the man has committed another common assault on the same victim but argued that the custodial threshold had not been crossed.
She said the man was from Dubbo originally but now lives in Orange.
Mr Day said the man had "Fernando, Bugmy" considerations, siting landmark court cases where the traumatic and deprived background of offenders were taken into account on sentencing.
"An early plea, first opportunity, I think that's what saves him," Mr Day said.
"Had he not pleaded guilty straight up he would be in real trouble."
Mr Day convicted the man and placed him on a 12-month Community Correction Order and ordered him to complete 20 hours of community service.
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