A violent offender who spent time as a fugitive when mistakenly released from custody has been jailed for two years for repeatedly bashing a woman who was staying with him.
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Andrew Brian Males, 37, who in 2014 spent about a month on the run when wrongly released by Corrections Victoria, viciously and regularly assaulted a woman who was living with him in an Altona North bungalow between December 2014 and January 2015.
In December 2014, after Males had been apprehended after his wrongful release and then granted bail on other offences, he met the woman and offered her a place to stay as she was a victim of domestic violence.
But, the County Court heard, Males inflicted increasingly serious injuries on her, until she visited a Medicare branch and raised her sunglasses to reveal two black eyes to a staff member, who contacted security.
Males was arrested soon after.
The woman was treated for a fractured jaw and nose, four fractured ribs, bruising and swelling to her stomach and face, internal injuries, a perforated eardrum and double vision, the court heard.
She also had a bald patch where Males had pulled out her hair.
Judge David Parsons said protecting the community was a paramount consideration in sentencing Males, after the former fugitive pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious injury and committing an indictable offence while on bail.
"It is absolutely clear that your victim suffered horrible and extensive physical and emotional injuries as a result of the sustained, violent and abusive treatment you meted out to her," Judge Parsons said in sentencing Males last Friday.
The consequences of the assaults would likely remain with the woman for a long time, the judge said.
The court heard Males had mental health problems and an intellectual disability, had endured a disadvantaged upbringing, and was remorseful for his offending.
He had also previously served almost 500 days in custody while police investigated allegations that did not proceed into criminal charges.
Judge Parsons took into account the "dead time" Males had served in fixing a two-year jail term with a two-year community corrections order to follow.
Males has already served more than 330 days of his sentence since his arrest last year.
