Stephen Pinto was part of a gathering at his parents' Horsley home on September 6. The 38-year-old began mixing his own glasses of Jack Daniels and coke and by 5pm had drunk about three-quarters of a bottle, and some port. Family members would later describe him as loud, passionate, obnoxious and "8-9/10 drunk".

He became involved in a minor disagreement and his mother thought he was joking until he spat in her face. When she followed him inside soon afterwards he grabbed her on her upper arms and pushed her up against a wall, leaving bruises on both her arms.

His panicking brother went to restrain him, but Pinto grabbed him by the throat until he couldn't breathe, the brother later told police.

"I didn't lose consciousness, but I felt I was close. I felt like I was going to black out."

But it was Pinto's eyes that were black, according to his sister-in-law, who was the next to try to restrain him. She later told police she believed Pinto was having a psychotic episode, describing him as red with rage and speaking in grunts. "His eyes were black; it was like no-one was there".

Once out the front of the property, Pinto punched his brother four or five times to his body, so that he woke up in severe pain the next day. He then ran with arms outstretched at his sister-in-law, hitting her at chest level so she fell backwards and hit her head on a concrete driveway.

His parents pinned him down on the driveway, at which point he began to vomit "profusely".

Family members left the property before police arrived and early reports to police suggested no crimes had taken place.

But six days later, Pinto's sister-in-law and brother gave statements to police, detailing their assaults.

When police spoke to Pinto's mother, she became emotional and shook uncontrollably when recounting her ordeal. She too agreed to provide a statement, and allowed photographs of her injuries to be taken.

At his mother's request, a by-then sober Pinto returned to the home to be arrested by police.

Officers described him as co-operative. He told them he could remember drinking, eating and watching home movies, but not much after that.

"I'm unable to remember what happened. I fell terrible, I can't remember," he told them.

He said relatives had since told him some details of his crimes, and his mother had shown him the bruises he caused her. "I was shocked that it got to that," he told police, in an emotional interview that ended with him saying he was sorry.

At Port Kembla Local Court on Wednesday, Pinto pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, intentionally choking a person and common assault.

Magistrate Sally McLaughlin ordered a sentence assessment report ahead of Pinto's return to court on November 18.