Judge denounces man who shot woman in head outside her Wodonga home

Jordan Frank Clarke, 29, was jailed on Wednesday, having approached the victim outside her Wodonga unit on April 27 last year.

He walked up to her with a weapon - which he later said was a Taser - and discharged it into her forehead after she said "do it".

A witness said it had sounded like a high-powered rifle being discharged.

Clarke, who had his face covered with a hood, fled in a car driven by his friend Sean Devlin as the victim was left heavily bleeding with metal in her forehead.

Two neighbours assisted her.

Surgery was required to remove the item and she was initially reluctant to say who had shot her amid fears of reprisals.

Clarke was later charged with attempted murder, which was downgraded to intentionally causing injury.

Judge Pardeep Tiwana, who imposed a minimum prison term of 20 months, said women were entitled to leave relationships without violence.

Clarke himself described his actions as "horrific" and "savage".

"You are not wrong about that," Judge Tiwana said.

"In sentencing you I denounce the conduct on behalf of the community in the strongest of terms.

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"The message must go out loud and clear that such cowardly conduct against partners and former partners will not be tolerated.

"Women are entitled to leave relationships as they chose, without the fear of violence being perpetrated upon them."

The judge noted it was a deliberate action.

While the actual weapon used in the offence wasn't certain, it could not be excluded it was a homemade Taser.

"You deliberately chose to place the Taser on (the victim's) head," Judge Tiwana said.

"You used the weapon and caused (the victim) a substantial injury."

Clarke was himself the victim of violence and threats at the hands of his alcoholic father while growing up.

The court heard Clarke's mother was a regular drug user and he saw her inject herself.

He started smoking cigarettes at age five and marijuana at 10, drinking at 13, and was smoking bongs with his mother at 15.

Clarke was using cannabis, ice and alcohol heavily from 18 and was drunk on spirits before the offending.

The court heard the 29-year-old was ruminating on his relationship breakdown in the lead-up to the attack, and fluctuated between bouts of extreme love and anger at her rejection.

"You engaged in a serious example of the offence," Judge Tiwana said.

"It is a serious example of family violence against an ex-partner involving the use of a weapon."

The judge noted prison time was the only option.

Clarke will serve 20 months, backdated to his arrest at Albury Airport on May 9 last year, before being able to apply for parole.

A maximum term of two-and-a-half years was imposed.

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