A Port Fairy woman hid in a dog kennel after being bashed by her partner, four days before she died from the injuries, a court has been told.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Justin Turner, 32, of Elizabeth Street, Port Fairy, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court sitting at Warrnambool on Friday to the manslaughter of his partner Kylie Cay.
Justice Kevin Bell heard that Ms Cay, 44, died in her Elizabeth Street home on June 21 last year after being discharged from hospital.
She was found by her mother and her son on the afternoon of June 22.
Turner was at the time in police custody after being charged with assaulting Ms Cay four days before her death.
Crown prosecutor Raymond Gibson said Ms Cay had suffered a painful, lonely and miserable death.
An autopsy found Ms Cay had a ruptured spleen and suffered blunt force to her torso and chest which had resulted in two fractured ribs.
She had four healed rib fractures but also multiple bruises and died of internal blood loss.
The court heard that Turner and Ms Cay had a relationship which involved domestic violence fuelled by alcohol and at the time of her death an intervention order was in place.
On the night of June 18 Turner was claimed to have gone beserk because he couldn't find his cigarettes.
He lifted Ms Cay up by the neck, a knife was held to her throat, she was dragged around by her hair and she was hit to the the top of her feet with a hammer which was used to shut a broken door.
He also stomped on her chest.
Ms Cay hid in a dog kennel with her dog while Turner searched for her for about an hour.
She went to the Port Fairy hospital and told a nurse she was beaten up by her partner.
She thought her ribs and collarbone were broken.
"He's going to kill me," she told the nurse.
Ms Cay was transferred to the Warrnambool Base Hospital and was treated for her rib fractures and a dislocated collarbone before being discharged on June 20.
The Emma House domestic violence service was called and a worker noted Ms Cay was dirty, covered in dog hair and had difficulty walking due to her injuries.
The worker said Ms Cay claimed Turner threatened to slit her dog's threat, threatened to kill her children, he sometimes choked her to the point of unconsciousness and she knew one day he would go too far.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Cay's son Seth said he felt that after the death of his mother his life had lost all colour and had gone grey.
He said his mother was the person he relied most for advice but she was now gone forever and he would have to make it on his own.
Barrister Jarrod Williams said Turner, who has a significant prior criminal history involving violence and had served jail terms, suffered from severe alcohol use disorder.
In a report handed up, Turner in relation to Ms Cay's death said: "I feel really shit about it all. I think about it it every day. It makes me depressed and sick".
Mr Williams said that if the case had gone to trial then the issue of cause of death could have litigated.
He said his client's mother was also suffering lung cancer.
Justice Bell said the case involved a manslaughter toward the severe end of the scale, involving the beating death of a defenceless woman in a domestic violence setting.
He will sentence Turner in about five weeks.