She couldn't breath. She was conscious of her windpipe being shut off. She could feel the restricted blood in her head.

Tingling sensations scattered, dancing through her hands and legs.

She was losing consciousness. She was terrified.

It was all because Ricky Parr "lost it". He'd later claim that losing control blanked it all out.

He wasn't frightened, just enraged, and whatever state she was in he didn't care.

IN OTHER NEWS:

And he wasn't finished. His attack had only just begun.

His victim was eight months younger than the 28-year-old Parr, a tall man with a slight, wiry build who continually blocked her, assaulted her, hurled threatening abuse.

Possibly still doped-up on "speed" he'd taken the night before, Parr's erratic, violent behaviour followed an argument just minutes after she accepted his invitation and arrived at his unit.

Earlier, about 1am, at the tail-end of a fitful sleep from the amphetamines, he'd thought about how he hadn't seen his girlfriend for a couple of days.

The invite came at 3am. But as soon as she arrived they bickered for four, maybe five minutes. He'd objected to her concern about his apparent change in behaviour.

"This isn't going anywhere," she told him, frustrated. "I'm going home."

UPDATE: Ricky Parr refused bail over more offending directed at ex-partner

SENTENCED: 32 months' jail for assaults

The 27-year-old, a mother to children from a previous relationship, walked to his front door. Parr ran past, cut her off, pushed her, screamed in her face.

"You're not leaving ... you're not leaving alive!"

This was it, she thought, what else could it be?

She was about to die.

The punches, the intimidating threats, the manhandling continued.

She tried to get out through the back courtyard, but the outside gate was padlocked. She returned inside, taking a path through the lounge room to again try to escape out the front door.

Parr grabbed her hair from behind, pulling her up. Even after they fell to the floor he didn't loosen his grasp.

He showed no signs of letting up.

"Your honour," defence lawyer Mark Cronin has put to magistrate Richard Funston in Albury Local Court, "you'll see that it's a serious case of this offending."

Parr's actions in the early hours of March 26 were such, he said, that the court could find he had crossed the threshold, that there might be no other appropriate punishment than jail, whether that be by way of full-time custody or an intensive corrections order served in the community.

But Mr Cronin then submitted the court might not need to take this approach if a sentence assessment report was ordered.

This, he explained, could address three key factors supporting the view that such a sentence was not warranted.

The first was Parr's decision to embark on the men's behavioural change program, a recent arrival to Albury, having long been identified by Border welfare agencies as an essential tool if domestic violence, overwhelmingly perpetrated by men, was to be meaningfully tackled.

Mr Cronin said Parr had also been in contact with Albury Community Mental Health and had sought-out drug and alcohol counselling through Albury Wodonga Health.

His involvement in each was "at an early stage" but nonetheless he had shown the insight to take these paths.

"Mr Parr and the community would benefit from him continuing this involvement in those programs," he said.

Parr previously pleaded guilty to common assault, intentionally choke person without consent, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two charges of stalk or intimidate.

HIDDEN TRAUMA - IN DEPTH:

Choking her left a three-centimetre graze, right under her chin. While Parr's attack was unrelenting, the victim did what she could to get away.

"Just let me go," she yelled at him, then ran to the back yard, saw the locked gate and returned inside.

Parr grabbed her hair, which he used to shake her intermittently, and rubbed his knuckles into her scalp above the hairline. After they fell, Parr used his legs to grab her around the torso, locking her in place with his crossed ankles.

When she tried to get up, he used his grip on her hair to pull her back down. He struck her head.

"Help me, help me," she pleaded to a friend of Parr's also in the unit.

He grabbed Parr from behind, using his arm to hold him back. He told Parr to let her go.

"Please don't choke me out, man," Parr pleaded to his mate, before repeatedly punching the woman.

She begged the friend to keep hold of Parr until she at least made her way out the front door.

Parr yelled at her again, threatening: "I'm going to cave your f***ing head in."

Eventually she got free, got in her car and drove home, then that afternoon went to Albury police, still suffering back pain nine hours after the attack. Parr handed himself in to police the following day, making full admissions.

Mr Funston made it clear that Parr's offending was grave.

"It will be a very serious sentencing matter on September 29."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: