Defence solicitor Sascha McCorriston said Dylan Cruickshanks’ aunt died in the crash “and he is still having nightmares about it”.

“Effectively what he said to me was his auntie ‘died on top of me’,” Ms McCorriston told Albury Local Court this week.

Ms McCorriston said the 18-year-old and his partner, also 18, broke-up in July, but they had remained in contact with each other.

“He has gone back and apologised to the victim,” she said, pointing to his “unresolved grief” over his aunt’s death.

But magistrate David O’Connor pointed out the assaults were only two days apart. “The offences here are quite serious,” he said

Cruickshanks had been due to be sentenced on the two domestic violence-related counts of common assault, to which he pleaded guilty.

But Mr O’Connor said he was not prepared to sentence Cruickshanks until he first had a pre-sentence report before him.

Sentencing will now take place on January 10, with Cruickshanks to remain in custody after no application was made for bail.

The court was told how Cruickshanks and his partner had been in a relationship for about three months before they separated.

Cruickshanks was already inside when the victim went to a friend’s Glenroy home on September 14 about 5pm.

It was not long afterwards that the pair got into an argument, which ended with Cruickshanks telling her “you’re a slut”. The pair then went to sleep on a couch.

The next afternoon they got into another argument during which the victim called Cruickshanks a “crack head”.

Cruickshanks walked up to her, grabbed her and pushed her into a door and then left, before returning later to say he was sorry.

At 10am on September 17, the victim was on the couch when she told Cruickshanks she was heading home.

That made Cruickshanks angry. He approached her and punched her to the face, then grabbed and shoved her and told  her to “f … off”.