A man has been found guilty of trapping his fiancee in her bedroom for two nights, brutally bashing her, drugging her, and threatening to kill her and ''bury her in the forest''.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The victim's ordeal began after the couple went to a party in Weston on Saturday 18, August, 2012, where they stayed until midnight, before the woman suggested they leave.
The man, 52, became angry as they left, and didn't speak at all to his partner as they drove back to their home.
Once they pulled into the driveway at home, he turned and punched the woman in the face.
The victim was shocked and went inside, looked in a mirror and called out to the man's son.
But the boy ran off and his dad became angry, telling his partner to ''keep my son out of this''.
He then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the bedroom, threw her to the bed and punched her repeatedly in the head.
The victim gave evidence that she thought she may have been punched 10 to 15 times in the first few minutes, each blow knocking her senseless.
The man then grabbed her by the head and slammed her head against the wall, and told her he would ''kill her and bury her in the forest and no one would ever find her''.
The ordeal went on for hours, and the woman said she drifted in and out of consciousness, sometimes waking up to plead with him to take her to hospital.
At one point, she said ''I think I'm going blind''. She said he responded by saying, ''Oh, that's just a cut on your forehead. Shut up'', before sticking his fingers into her eyes and saying ''I'll show you f---ing blind''.
He forced her to take Xanax tablets and painkillers, and repeatedly stopped her from leaving the house.
The next night she got her phone, called triple-0, and left it lying face down in the room, so he wouldn't see.
A recorded message began playing and her attacker came back into the room. Fearing he would hear the call, she began talking loudly to mask the sound. The woman gave evidence that she thought he had then grabbed the phone, beat her again, and threw her on the bed, telling her to stay there and shut up.
On Monday morning, he finally took his partner to hospital, telling her to make up a story that she was bashed in the toilets of the Hellenic Club, but that he had come in and saved her.
Instead, the woman told medical staff what had happened, and they called the police.
The man pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman, but fought two charges stemming from the attack - an assault charge relating to choking and an unlawful confinement charge.
He stood trial before a judge, Justice John Burns, in the ACT Supreme Court last year.
Justice Burns delivered his verdict on Monday morning, finding the 52-year-old guilty of the two charges.
The judge rejected the man's version of events, including his denial of ever punching his partner as they sat in the car.
He had also claimed the woman had thrown hot water on him during an argument in the house, scratched him in the face, and then ran him over with her car outside.
The man admitted to slapping her numerous times, including backhanding her, but said he never hit her with a closed fist.
He also confessed to lying to police and medical staff about the attack.
His son, who lived at the home, backed up elements of his father's story, including that the woman had run his father over.
Justice Burns, however, dismissed their evidence, saying the father was a ''most unsatisfactory witness'', who had deliberately lied in some parts of his story. ''I am satisfied that the accused is willing to lie whenever he thinks that he may profit by a lie,'' Justice Burns found.
The attacker tried to manipulate the victim after the attack, trying to persuade her to change her statement or refuse to give evidence in court.
The son was also found to lack credibility. He disliked his father's partner and conferred with his dad before the trial to get their stories straight.
The man will be sentenced at a later date.