A Melbourne man who murdered his partner because she woke him up struck her so hard with a metal chair that its leg pierced her skull.
Steve Ray Cook, 24, was drunk and became enraged when his partner, Sharnee Ngatai, woke him after he'd fallen asleep in the backyard of their Hampton Park home after a party.
He knocked her to the ground and then grabbed the nearest object to hit her with "extreme force".
"You picked up a steel-framed chair, held it above Sharnee and then brought it down on her," Justice James Elliott said, as he sentenced Cook to 21 years and six months jail on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old woman died in hospital and an autopsy found the chair leg went "all the way through her brain".
The Victorian Supreme Court heard Cook had a history of violently abusing his partner, and bruises were found all over her body.
The couple, who had two children, had reconciled months before the fatal attack, after Cook served 10 months in jail for an earlier assault.
Cook later told police he'd made a "horrible mistake ... I feel like a dog".
Justice Elliott described the January 2014 fatal attack as heinous and cowardly, and jailed Cook for a non-parole period of 17 years and six months.
Cook waved to his children as he was led from the dock.
Outside the court, Sharnee's sister had a message for other women enduring family violence.
"If you've got to get out - you've got to get out now," Randi Korau said.
"My sister wasn't so lucky to get out of her relationship and she paid with her life in the end."
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