The man spent 68 days behind bars after repeatedly shoving his partner out of car parked in the driveway of the woman’s mother’s Dapto home. 

According to police documents tendered to Wollongong Local Court on Monday, the man was was irate, irrational and presumed drug-affected when he and the woman visited the home on March 30. He accused his partner of being unfaithful before picking up the couple’s 18-month-old boy and running to the woman’s car. 

The woman gave chase and was attempting to get the child out of the car when the man, 33, grabbed her around waist and threw her against a metal carport pole. 

With the child “screaming hysterically”, the woman was helped to her feet by her mother and continued her attempts to reach the boy. the man dealt her another push and she fell briefly unconscious as he drove away with boy in the back seat.

The assault was the culmination of a tense day of conflict between the couple. Earlier he had pushed her while she was holding the boy, causing mother and child to fall backwards over a lounge arm, onto cushioned seats. 

On Monday, defence lawyer Anthony Williamson told the court his client hadn’t intended for the woman to hit her head when he pushed her from the car.  Mr Williamson said the man had emerged from prison a better person.

“It was a bit of a blessing in disguise because his time in custody enabled him to not be taking drugs,” he said.

The court heard the man had since moved out of the Illawarra and begun volunteer work, then taken up full-time employment. 

He was fined $600 for driving with an expired license, and handed an eight-month suspended prison sentence for contravening an apprehended violence order, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He was sentenced to two months imprisonment for common assault – a term he had already served in full.