Barry Teddy had caught a turtle and he wanted to be the one to eat it.
So when he discovered that Laura Harrison had made a meal out of his catch, he bashed her senseless and walked away.
Justice Trevor Riley told the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin, ''She awoke the following day to find herself alone and unable to move. She lay in the sun until she was spotted by a passing car.''
Sentencing Teddy to three years in prison with a non-parole period of 20 months, Justice Riley told the court last week Ms Harrison had passed out ''from a combination of the assault and the alcohol she had consumed''.
She had been drinking with the defendant and others at Roper Bar Crossing, near the Gulf of Carpentaria, on September 9, 2006, when Teddy caught a turtle.
''You managed to catch it and place it in a bag,'' Justice Riley said.
''You told your friends that they were not to eat it.''
But Ms Harrison became hungry later that night and put the turtle on the fire.
Infuriated that his dinner was on the flames, the 37-year-old Teddy punched Ms Harrison on the face a number of times, the court heard.
''She then fell to the ground and you kicked her a number of times in her body and left her lying on the ground,'' Justice Riley said, adding that Teddy was wearing boots at the time.
When Ms Harrison was discovered the next day she was taken to the local clinic before being transferred to the Katherine Hospital and later moved to Darwin, where she remained until September 19.
She suffered internal bleeding, a lacerated spleen, fractured ribs and a collapsed lung.
She was given a blood transfusion and underwent an operation to remove herspleen.
If her injuries had been left untreated they would have been life-threatening, Justice Riley said.
''She will be required to take antibiotics on a daily basis for the rest of her life because of the risk of sepsis following the removal of her spleen,'' the court heard.
Teddy was arrested over the attack in February 2007 but he skipped bail and was not re-arrested until later that year, when he was again granted bail and again failed to appear.
The father of two was not arrested by police again until last November, when he pleaded guilty to causing grievous harm.
''The attack caused serious injury to your victim and injuries which are going to have an ongoing impact upon her for the rest of her life,'' Justice Riley said.
''Offending of this kind is, unfortunately, very common.
''Drunken Aboriginal men attacking drunken Aboriginal women is an occurrence that is seen in the court on many occasions ...
''The community is very disturbed about the frequency and level of violence generally, and this type of violence in particular, causing as it does severe injuries and great trauma to victims and their family and friends.''
Teddy's sentence was backdated to include time already spent in custody. AAP
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