The 43-year-old, who cannot be named because that could identify the victim, pleaded guilty in Warrnambool County Court to intentionally causing injury and making a threat to kill.

He was jailed for four years and three months, with a non-parole period of two years and three months.

On April 14 the man entered the victim's home and demanded to see his children.

He pushed the victim onto the bed, pinned her arms behind her back and attempted to wrap duct tape around her mouth in an attempt to silence her.

He choked the victim and punched her 10 times in the face. The pair's two young children could be heard crying in the room next door.

The victim felt blood running down her face and called out to her daughter for help. When the child entered the room, she stood between her mother and father and said: "Don't hurt mummy anymore."

In sentencing, Judge Michael O'Connell said when explaining the break down of the marriage, the man told a psychologist he didn't want his children to grow up around their parents fighting.

"I hope you now appreciate the irony of that, given the circumstances you perpetrated that violence," he said.

"Your children who you professed you wanted to see have also been left deeply scarred by what you did."

Judge O'Connell said the man was remorseful, his prospects of rehabilitation were good, and he had appeared to be a "model prisoner" while in custody on remand.

But, he said the offending was very serious.

He said the nature of the offending was "too often perpetrated by men who chose to violently respond when confronted with relationship difficulties".

"Male violence directed at female partners is utterly unacceptable," he said.

The man has already served 510 days in custody on remand.

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