Former AFL player Nick Stevens jailed for three months and fined $3000 over attacking ex-partner

Former AFL player Nick Stevens has been jailed for three months, with a further three months suspended, and fined $3000 over domestic violence against his ex-partner.

Stevens had appealed his original sentence and conviction after being found guilty in March this year of assault-related charges, and struck a deal with prosecutors to have ten charges dropped.

He has pleaded guilty to two charges of intentionally causing serious injury.

During a resentence hearing at the County Court today, he admitted to pushing his former partner’s head into a brick wall.

County Court judge Damien Murphy said the domestic violence incidents had a lifelong impact on his former partner, and that the “trauma must have been significant”.

During sentencing, Judge Murphy said general deterrence was fundamental.

“Family violence is a blight on our society,” he said.

The court was shown confronting images of the victim, and was told new details about the alleged violence.

The court heard that during 2013, Stevens put his former lover's head against a bench and a splashback, hard enough for her to scar.

When she fell to the ground, Stevens kicked her several times and told her he was going to "beat her to within an inch of her life", the court heard.

Two months later, he pushed her head into a brick wall.

In a statement read by prosecutor Daryl Brown to the court, the victim said she was traumatised by the abuse and it had ruined her life. She said she was no longer the “happy, carefree, fun person” she once was.

Defence barrister Sarah Keenan said the incidents were "spontaneous" and occurred in a turbulent relationship where the victim was preoccupied with thoughts of Stevens' infidelity.

Ms Keenan said Stevens had a clean criminal record, and his career was a testament to his character.

The judge rejected the claim that his offending was at the lower end of the scale, citing Stevens had little remorse for his behaviour.

While Stevens failed to show proper control, his conduct was at the "lower end" and did not deserve a jail term, she said.

Stevens played 231 AFL games for Port Adelaide and Carlton from 1998 to 2009.