Those six words, uttered by Magistrate Karen Fryar on White Ribbon Day, helped sum up the case of Christopher Cunningham, 28, who grew up watching his father beat his mother, and has now been sentenced for stalking and threatening to kill his partner when she left him.

Cunningham was convicted and sentenced in the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday to two years imprisonment for stalking, contravening a protection order, failing to appear in court, and traffic matters.

The stalking began on the day his partner broke up with him.

Through text messages and voicemails, he sent her what were described as "serious, violent, and graphic threats about killing [her]". He also gloated about how he was going to take their children.

Ms Fryar said the threats were used as a method of control and intimidation, and in some strange hope of Cunningham's to secure the children.

"This kind of stalking is, in my view, an offence of psychological violence, designed to inflict fear on the victim because she ended the relationship," she said.

"It was an attempt by the defendant to control the victim as a result of an inadequacy in his own makeup."

Cunningham grew up in an environment of violence.

His father beat his mother, and also turned on him and his siblings. Cunningham was also bullied at school.

"Sadly this matter is a perfect example of the insidious and cyclical nature of family violence, and how the bullied has become the bully," Ms Fryar said.

Cunningham failed to appear in court on three occasions, and his offence put him in breach of a good behaviour order for assault. It's the second time he has breached the order since it was imposed in 2012, making Cunningham liable to a further three months behind bars.

His attitude toward the court was described as "contemptuous", and Ms Fryar found community-based sentences would not be appropriate, both because he was unlikely to comply with orders, and due to the seriousness of the most recent offending.

The two-year sentence was backdated to August for time already served.

He will be eligible for parole in September next year.