Partner told choke victim: ‘Know your place’

A FORKLIFT driver told his partner to “know your place, (expletive)” as he choked her so hard it fractured a bone under her jaw.

Despite the attack the woman stood in the Southport District Court on Wednesday to support Joel James Demas in an effort to keep him from going to prison.

“In my eyes he is a very loving and trustworthy father,” she said.

The woman told the court she had provoked the attack on July 20 last year by pushing Demas after she asked him to leave her home.

She also said she was now pregnant with Demas’ child.

Demas pleaded guilty to eight charges, including choking and assault occasioning bodily harm.

Judge Katherine McGinness sentenced him to 2½ years prison.

He can be released on parole on January 4 next year.

“Being strangled to the point of unable to breathe must have been very terrifying,” she said.

Crown prosecutor Natalie Lima said the day of the attack Demas and his partner had been arguing and she asked him to leave.

As he left, she pushed Demas and he reacted by wrestling her to the ground, straddling her and placing his hands around her throat.

“She was unable to breathe and her eyes started to bulge,” Ms Lima said.

“She scratched at his face and he bit her pinky finger.”

Defence barrister Crystal Lovel tendered to the court a reference from a former partner who said she had never experienced any violence from Demas during their relationship.

“He appreciates the wrongness of his actions, which is perhaps something that is not ordinarily seen in these types of offending,” she said.

Ms Lovel said Demas also helped his grandparents with grocery shopping and cleaning.