A New South Wales man has avoided jail time after becoming the first person charged under the state's new coercive control laws.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested in July this year, less than a month after the laws came into effect, when a woman known to the man reported to her local police station.
Coercive control is defined as patterns of controlling behaviour, used by a perpetrator to exert control over another person and can involve things like threats, surveillance, insults and withholding money.
Lawyers for the ABC made written submissions to the court on Tuesday to amend the strict suppression order that had previously prevented any media reporting of the case.
The man was also sentenced for other domestic violence offences including assault occasioning actual bodily harm and stalking/ intimidation intending fear of physical harm.
The NSW Police prosecution told Magistrate Pauline Wright the man perpetrated the acts in a home where children were present and the doors were locked.
"She was locked inside … the doors were shut with a padlock used," she said.
The prosecution said the man told the woman: "This will be your last night, I am going to murder you".
Magistrate Wright heard the man controlled the woman's finances, access to her phone and moved her away from her support network where the abuse intensified.
The man had pleaded guilty to the charges but told the court on Tuesday that he was not a violent man.
"[I] pleaded guilty for convenience … so the matter could be dealt with."
NSW Police urged Magistrate Wright to consider the victim's safety.
"[The offender has] no indication of any remorse," the prosecutor said.
"[We are] asking you to consider the safety of the complainant as paramount."
Magistrate Wright told the court the "facts are disturbing" and sentenced him to an 18-month intensive corrections order to be served in the community.
The prosecution requested an electronic ankle monitor be issued, which the magistrate agreed to.
The man was also instructed to participate in 120 hours of community service.
The coercive control laws were passed by NSW parliament in 2022 and the state's police force spent almost a year training its officers on how to enforce the laws before they came into effect in July this year.