James Head, who was 25 at the time of offending, pleaded guilty on November 29 to false imprisonment, recklessly causing injury, criminal damage, persistently breaching an intervention order.

On Tuesday, Judge Paul Lacava upheld a ruling made in the Ballarat Magistrates Court in December last year, sentencing James Head to 23 months in jail with a non-parole period of 14 months.

During the ordeal on July 13 last year, Head locked the woman in her bedroom for up to an hour, assaulted her by bashing her head on the floor until she saw spots and damaged her property.

Head's defence counsel said her client had come to realise after serving almost eight months imprisonment there was a better way forward with his life, and asked for Judge Lacava to uphold the appeal and impose a jail sentence of time already served, along with a lengthy community corrections order.

The defence lawyer also stated Head hadn't completed the latest community corrections order because of the death of his grandmother. 

Judge Lacava said that "appeals like this must fail", as Head was previously given a community corrections order for offending against the same victim, and he had breached the order "by not attending or completing a men's behavioural program, which is at the heart of trying to steer him clear of trouble".

He told the court they would only have to read the victim impact statement "to appreciate the pain and suffering women and family members have to go through" during offending like Head's, and general deterrence was an important factor in dismissing the sentence appeal. 

The Ballarat Magistrate's Court had previously heard that in July 2018, Head arrived at the victim's house, uninvited, in the afternoon after phoning and texting her frequently from 7.30am. After he had pushed his way into the house, Head pinned the woman on the bed with his forearm over her throat.

The victim then found a shard of glass on the floor which she used to threaten Head, but he hit her several times. When Head saw blood, believing it was his, he started to bash the woman's head on the floor until she saw spots.

The woman crawled to her mobile phone and sent a text message to her friend for help. Police eventually arrived and arrested Head.

Head has served 240 days in pre-sentence detention.