A Sydney man who held a gun to his de facto wife's head and then subjected her to a "terrifying" game of Russian roulette has been sentenced to at least four and a half years jail.
George Batista, 47, grabbed a revolver after having a fight with his then de facto wife Jenny Nangle in the early hours of December 29, 2010 at their western Sydney home.
He loaded it with a single bullet and spun the chamber.
Pointing it at Ms Nangle's head, Batista pulled the trigger.
When the revolver didn't go off, he doubled the chances of death by adding a second bullet, before spinning the chamber again and pointing it at her forehead.
After it didn't go off again, he pointed it at her chest before pulling the trigger once more.
Ms Nangle then managed to climb under the garage door, run inside their Greystanes home and call police.
In sentencing Batista on Friday, Acting Judge Geoff Graham said it was difficult to imagine the terror the ordeal must have evoked in Ms Nangle.
Even though the pair had been drinking throughout the previous day, he said this did little to blunt the impact Ms Nangle felt.
Reading from a victim impact statement tendered to court, Judge Graham said Ms Nangle felt "embarrassed and ashamed".
Ms Nangle, who now suffers from "chronic" post-traumatic stress disorder, has nightmares and flashbacks, and describes being unable to form relationships or trust people.
The court heard that shortly before December 2010, Ms Nangle had said she wanted a separation from Batista, with whom she had been for eight years.
She said the ordeal of December 29, followed a relationship marred by emotional abuse.
While Judge Graham said he could not make this finding, he said the fact that Batista threatened her in her own home was an aggravating factor.
"She was in a particularly vulnerable situation," he said.
"The offender was armed and prepared to use it in a kind of form of Russian roulette and to escalate the danger of that by the insertion of a second bullet."
Batista was also sentenced for a number of other offences, including threatening someone with a replica pistol and taking part in the supply of drugs.
He was sentenced him to a maximum of seven years.
Taking into consideration time already served, his earliest date of release is June next year.
