A Wollongong man has been denied bail over allegations he brutally assaulted his girlfriend physically and sexually in their Crown Street unit.
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The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of punching the girl in the stomach multiple times and trying to strangle her in up to four individual attacks in the space of two weeks.
He was arrested on Thursday night after the woman reported the alleged incidents to police earlier that day.
The man appeared in Wollongong Local Court on Friday seeking bail on three charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one charge of aggravated sexual assault.
Through his lawyer, Graeme Morrison, the man strenuously denied the accusations, saying he was not home at the time that at least one of the assaults was alleged to have happened.
Details of the police case against the man reveal the pair first met in February, and began dating in June.
They shared the unit for two months before experiencing relationship trouble, prompting the woman to move out, however the relationship then continued.
The woman alleged the man began abusing her physically in October.
She claimed that on one occasion about two weeks ago, the man held her down on their bed and repeatedly punched her in the stomach.
The allegation wasn’t reported to police.
She said he then assaulted her again last Friday as she packed a bag intending to leave the unit due to being unwell.
The man allegedly dragged her onto the bed by her hair, bit her on the ear and punched her in the stomach, before repeatedly trying to strangle her.
The woman claimed the assault lasted for about an hour before a brief pause, and then continued with the man threatening to break her jaw and slit her throat.
The woman told police she ‘‘got to a point where [she] ran out of options and the only thing she thought of doing was to self-harm in an attempt to make the man stop’’.
The woman used a pair of scissors to cut her left wrist, allegedly prompting the man to tackle her and punch her in the stomach and nose.
It is alleged the man then shoved tissues into the woman’s mouth before picking up a glass of phlegm next to the bed and pouring it on the victim’s face.
The woman claimed she was unaware of what happened next and may have fallen asleep.
When she woke the next morning the man again started punching her before sexually assaulting her, the court heard.
She later fell asleep in bed and only woke at 5pm, when she then left the property, later meeting up with friends at Dicey Riley’s Pub.
One of the friends, noticing her visible injuries, took her to Wollongong Hospital for treatment.
She was released on Sunday and saw a doctor on Monday, before reporting the allegations to police on Thursday.
Mr Morrison argued the police facts presented to the court could only be described as ‘‘bizarre’’, saying they did not add up.
‘‘The facts themselves don’t quite bear out the actual allegations,’’ he said.
‘‘The alleged victim herself said in the facts she was going to self-harm ... it may explain her injuries ... we don’t know.’’
Magistrate Michael Stoddart accepted that the man had no criminal record and that certain aspects of the facts were unusual, but said a series of photos depicting the woman’s injuries were ‘‘dreadful’’.
He refused to release the man on bail.
The case will return to court in February.