It was because of the hulking, heavily tattooed man with a closely shaved head at the lounge room window, father to four of the youngsters then aged 12 months to seven years.

"You want to play games," he threatened, his words spiked with aggression, laced with anger, "you gunna get yourself hurt."

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Joshua King's estranged wife went to her friend's home in Lavington about 9.30am to collect her fourth child, who had stayed for the night. He had become aware of "intimate" online messaging between his wife and his younger brother; there had already been a confrontation in their Thurgoona family home, where he threw a phone at her before landing a punch.

This man, standing in the old measurement at 6'5" or around 195 centimetres and weighing in around 115 kilograms, replete with a history of violence and all kinds of criminal offending, was enraged. They, in turn, were terrified - she and her friend stood a full foot shorter, around 165 centimetres, and would have barely tipped the scales at 65 to 70 kilograms.

His behaviour this day, that previous violence at the Thurgoona family home, the incidents of intimidation committed in late February while claiming he wouldn't face the consequences in court.

It has all ended in a jail cell. King was handed a 22-month term this week by Albury Local Court magistrate Sally McLaughlin, who described what he did as "serious examples of these offences".

He will get parole after 12 months inside.

Moments before the two women hurried the children into a back room, King pulled up in his car outside the house, got out and walked past the carport to a closed window. The friend first heard the reverberating timbre of his voice, then more plainly his screaming through the window at the mother of his children.

They knew he was coming, for the victim's mother had told her so in a desperate phone call. It was November 17, 2021.

The couple had, defence lawyer Chirag Patel said, been married for four years and together for 15. For all his violence, Mr Patel submitted, the now 31-year-old King had never been charged with domestic-related offences.

King had found the separation "difficult to accept", though did accept there no alternative to full-time jail. Mr Patel said there would be "no utilitarian benefit" in an intensive corrections order - a period of custody served in the community - because his client had made a new life for himself in Melbourne with a new partner.

This made him ineligible for such an order.

The friend, police said, knew differently on the incidence of violence. When the victim visited her that day she realised the relationship, a "volatile" one at that, had broken down, in the wake of many unreported domestic incidents over the years.

Four days earlier, on November 13, this was what happened in the family home. The victim told police how King had "started on her" so she went to the sanctuary of her bedroom. He came in, asked for her phone and then threw it back, striking her rib cage.

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The pain was immediate and intense, as the phone ricocheted into a bedroom side table and smashed.

King climbed on to the bed and, as she attempted to get up, kneed her to the left leg. She rose again, only to have him punch her to the back, right side of her head, causing her to fall between the bed and the table.

As she lay cowering on the floor, her arms folded to protect her head, King yelled "just get up, you're a b--ch, sook and hypochondriac" and repeatedly ordered "get the f--- up."

For this he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault and destroy or damage property.

Police said King had an "extensive criminal history" that was "not limited" to violence, illicit drug supply, possessing a prohibited weapon, aggravated break and enter, firearm offences and affray.

"Both victims have serious fears for their safety ... of note was eight small, frightened children in the residence at the time of the offences taking place."

After arriving at her friend's house, King's wife decided to stay for the day. During that time the friend became aware that King was "angry" over the victim's "intimate" online contact with his brother.

The victim told her friend she was terrified of her husband. And then her mother phoned at 1.40pm to warn King was on his way, so they moved away from the front door and deeper into the house, fearful of King's history of "violence and rage".

Sensing this, the children "began to wail and cry".

After screaming at him through the window to "f--- off", King's wife called Triple-0 and kept the call on speaker phone so the operator could hear him bellowing. Her mother turned up and, while standing with the friend, heard King say to his wife: "You're ... gunna get f---en hurt."

When police got there just minutes later, with King having fled, the victim and her friend were in "serious distress, speaking quickly" and "fearful of the accused arriving back" at the house.

The third set of charges to which King pleaded guilty, of intimidation and an apprehended violence order breach, were laid over offending committed just hours after the order was imposed on February 28. King had avoided attending court and was believed to be living in Victoria.

His wife received a text message at 7.56pm from a mutual friend urging her to "stay safe" along with a link to a Facebook story by King containing a video he recorded while driving.

The video was directed at his wife and her mother and featured King saying: "Clearly I'm not in jail and I got a warrant, which means I don't care about bail rules, so who really is the one who should be scared ... youse, not me coz I got no reason to stop - y'all do."

In a second video, King said he was "never gonna" front court, then told them: "F--- your assumptions and allegations, now watch me put it in action." A third video had him calling the mother and daughter "ya f---ing dogs".

King showed no reaction to his sentence.

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