An alcoholic truck driver who bashed his ex-girlfriend and left her to die a week after a restraining order against him lapsed has been jailed for 11 years.
Mark Charles Hill, 56, will not be released from jail until at least August 2021, after he was convicted of the unlawful killing of mother-of-two Roma Pollitt, 60, at her Bullsbrook home.
Ms Pollitt's battered body was found in her semi-rural home in August 2012.
Hill was found to have been the one who inflicted the injuries, after earlier threatening Ms Pollitt over money he said she owed him for repairs to her car.
In Western Australia's Supreme Court on Friday, Judge Michael Corboy found that after viciously beating Ms Pollitt to her head, neck, ribs and back, Hill left her dying in her lounge room.
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A post mortem concluded she died around three hours after the injuries were inflicted, by which time Hill was on his way to Esperance, where he was eventually arrested.
During sentencing, it was revealed Hill had been jailed in 2011 for an assault on another girlfriend, in breach of a restraining order she had taken out against him.
That assault was also described as violent and significant.
Hill also had convictions for stalking another woman, and disorderly behaviour on a plane stemming from a violent argument with another female friend while on a flight from Perth to Melbourne.
Ms Pollitt had taken out a two-year violence restraining order against Hill in 2010.
Judge Corboy described Hill's criminal past as a "disturbing pattern", culminating in the deadly assault on Ms Pollitt.
"The fact you left the deceased (without help) is a most serious aggravating factor," Judge Corboy said.
In victim impact statements, Ms Pollitt's family described her as a kind, loving, gentle and free-spirited woman whose death had left the family without an important element.
