The woman was taken to hospital on the evening of May 29 with a fractured nose, broken eye socket and three “gaping” wounds above her left eye after Wayne Anthony Maher repeatedly hit her.

Police who turned up at the house discovered a “significant amount of blood” spattered throughout the premises including on towels, bed sheets and the lounge room wall. 

While in hospital, the woman told police Maher had hit her three times while wearing a ring on one of his fingers.

“I remember him hitting me then I was unconscious [then] I don’t remember anything,” she allegedly said.

“I went to the bathroom and saw my eye was swollen and bleeding.

“I came out and he started on me again. I said I was going to my girlfriends and he said ‘no you’re not, you slut, you’re staying here’.”

The woman told police Maher had apparently “never hit a woman before”, however she went on to say she was fearful of him: “I have got no safety with him ever again”.

Upon Maher’s arrest that evening, police saw his right hand was covered in blood and he was sporting a ring on one finger.

He was charged, refused bail and prohibited from contacting the woman under the terms of an apprehended violence order.

However, a couple of weeks later the woman received a letter from Maher asking her to “drop the charges”.

“I still love you, I’m really sorry, I don’t know what got over me,” he wrote.

“Please give me a chance to change, don’t have me locked up in here bub, if you love me you’ll drop the charges.

“Ring Wollongong police and drop the charges, I will never hurt you again.”

Maher pleaded guilty to recklessly causing grievous bodily harm and contravention of an apprehended violence order. He will be sentenced early next year.