Denghu Ji, 24, was sentenced in the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday after being charged with choking and common assault.

The incident in question took place at the victim's Australian National University student accommodation on October 14, 2019.

A Chinese-born student attending the same university, Ji donned the Canberra institution's insignia to court on Thursday.

He entered into an intimate relationship with the victim, initially, without her knowledge of his primary partner.

The assault occurred when the victim contacted the man's other partner in China over the phone to divulge the secondary relationship.

Ji, who was 21 at the time, found out and went to the victim's room, snatched her phone, deleted messages and eventually called his partner in China asking her not to break up with him.

When the victim tried retrieving her phone, Ji pushed her backwards onto the bed.

While still on the phone, he then grabbed the victim's neck for a total of two minutes, tightening his grip for the second minute to the point where the victim "couldn't breath" and "was terrified I might die".

The victim could allegedly hear Ji's other partner telling the man to stop hurting her through the phone.

Magistrate James Stewart said the man had an "overwhelming desire to stop that extraordinarily uncomfortable telephone communication from continuing".

Red finger marks were clearly visible around the victim's neck following the prolonged assault.

Ji previously told the court he had "braced" his hand on the victim's neck without pressure, claiming he acted in self-defence out of fear the woman may attempt to harm him or self-harm.

The magistrate described the "self-serving" man's interviews with authorities, wherein he denied culpability and tried using the victim's history of mental health to undermine her reliability, as "gaslighting".

After pleading not guilty to the charges and maintaining his innocence for several years, the Chinese international student was found guilty of the offences at the conclusion of a hearing in July 2022.

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His appeal to the ACT Supreme Court was then dismissed in March of this year by Justice Belinda Baker, after which the court heard Ji accepted responsibility for his offending.

Mr Stewart said the protracted matter was delayed by COVID and the "offender's denial of criminal responsibility".

The magistrate sentenced Ji to a three month and 13-day jail term, which Mr Stewart elected to suspend.

The man, who will remain under ACT Corrective Services supervision for a total of 12 months, has already spent 17 days in custody for his offending.

"He's had that taste of prison, your honour," Ji's defence lawyer said.

"He knows what it feels like to sit in a cell."

The court heard how the assault affected the "heartbroken and desperate" victim's ability to trust her current partner and how she feels sick and flees during moments of intimacy.

"I only feel safe when I cover my face in a public place," she said in a victim impact statement read out on Thursday.

"I'm afraid if he meets me and recognises me."

The offender was said to come from a family of "relatively high status", with his mother being a judge and his father a banker.

The court heard he suffered social anxiety around women, was immature in the context of relationships and was still adjusting to life without parental support at the time of the offence.

The magistrate dismissed these factors as relevant to sentencing but accepted the man was "out of his depth in terms of the relationship quagmire he got himself into".

Ji was also handed a $2000 fine.

There is no indication the man's bridging visa, which replaced his cancelled student visa, would be affected.

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