A Thai fruit picker who stabbed a former girlfriend three times in the chest after she'd dumped him for punching her has been jailed for nine years in Victoria.
Charan Hannarong, 40, attacked 28-year-old mother-of-three Pentarkarn Yoosuan with a steak knife after she refused his requests to romantically reunite.
He had pleaded guilty to the charge of attempted murder for the attack, which occurred in Wangaratta during November 2015.
Hannarong and the young woman had met as fruit pickers on a farm in the state's northeast, started dating and then moved in together.
Both were in Australia to work and to send money back to their families in Thailand.
During sentencing in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday, Justice Christopher Beale said before the attempted murder, Hannarong had punched Ms Yoosuan in the head while he was drunk, causing her to end their relationship.
When she refused to reunite, he approached her in the backyard at a friend's party.
When she again declined his pleas, he asked if she wanted to die and said that "maybe we could go out together".
After stabbing her, Hannarong stabbed himself repeatedly in the chest, causing 25 self-inflicted wounds.
Justice Beale said Hannarong was not intoxicated during the attempted murder, although he was affected by alcohol.
He said the crime was actuated by "intense anger and stress" relating to their separation.
He said Ms Yoosuan could no longer work as a fruit picker because she damaged her hand when she tried to grab the knife.
She suffers ongoing psychological distress.
"She's plagued by an image of herself covered in blood," Justice Beale said.
"Men must not respond with violence when a woman chooses to end a relationship."
Hannarong will serve a minimum of six years' imprisonment and will be deported after his sentence.
He has already served 538 days in pre-sentence detention.
