The pair had already been drinking for a few hours when the attack happened the next day about 2am.

Albury Local Court has heard the woman remembered entering her kitchen for a drink and smoke.

“The next thing the victim can recall,” police said, “is being on the kitchen floor and the accused was on top of her with his hands around her throat choking her. This caused the victim to have difficulty breathing.”

Enes Besic, now 52, then got off the woman, walked over to her handbag and took out $50.

She followed Besic into a bedroom where he was packing his belongings.

“Enes,” she told him, “give me back my money, I want my money back.”

She grabbed him by the back of the shirt.

“The victim is unsure if the accused hit her or pushed her, but she fell and hit her head on her chest of drawers.”

She then screamed at Besic to get out of the house.

Besic previously pleaded guilty to common assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, intentionally choke person with recklessness and two counts of failing to appear on bail.

Defence solicitor Sascha McCorriston said Besic had not committed any further offences against the victim since the incident took place on the night of December 31, 2015.

They had, she said, continued their relationship until early this year.

“Certainly the matters are of a serious nature.”

MORE STORIES FROM COURT

But Ms McCorriston said it was to his credit that Besic, who was jailed in Victoria in 2010 for assault, had since maintained a clean record.

“That shows Mr Besic has been an upstanding community member.”

Mr McCorriston said both Besic and the victim were drinking that night, though she far more heavily in keeping with her problem with alcohol addiction.

Magistrate Rodney Brender said that while he accepted both Besic and the victim had been drinking, this “mustn’t provide any excuse for that type of violence”.

“It’s a serious domestic violence assault,” he said.

Mr Brender said he had given serious consideration as to whether the assault was serious enough to justify a jail term.

But he decided against that as it was Besic’s first domestic violence incident and there were no injuries suffered by the victim.

He convicted Besic and placed him on a two-year community corrections order, involving 200 hours of unpaid work, and fined him $2500.

Besic was given a conditional release order without conviction on the assault charge.