Man can't recall stomping on woman's head

A Sydney man accused of stomping on his girlfriend's head and attacking her with a pot plant during a domestic dispute has had an application to withdraw his guilty plea rejected.

Trent Wainwright, 32, from Mortdale in southern Sydney, is charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent after he allegedly threw his girlfriend onto a concrete driveway and stomped repeatedly on her head.

He then allegedly threw a terracotta pot at her.

The 19-year-old was left with fractured jaw bone and eye sockets, loose teeth and lacerations to her face.

At Downing Centre District Court on Friday, crown prosecutor John Bowers lamented the "protracted process" of the matter, whereby Wainwright had already dismissed three legal teams and changed his plea on multiple occasions.

Wainwright, who has been in custody for two and a half years, originally pleaded guilty.

He altered that to not guilty, then backflipped again in February just as his trial was due to start.

On Friday, his latest defence barrister Ertunc Ozen applied to withdraw Wainwright's guilty plea on the basis he couldn't recall how his girlfriend acquired her injuries.

"He can't remember causing those injuries but he accepts that he must have done," Mr Ozen said.

He told the court Wainwright had been intoxicated on the night of the incident, and his girlfriend had provoked him by coming at him with a knife and scratching him.

Mr Ozen said his client also suffered from epilepsy and a long-standing underlying mental condition which caused psychosis.

The proceedings at times descended into farce with Wainwright repeatedly interrupting Mr Ozen and Judge Stephen Norrish.

"I'm getting treatment Your Honour," he declared at one point as his mother held her finger to her lips to signal him to quieten down.

Judge Norrish grew increasingly frustrated at the intrusions and at Mr Ozen's arguments of Wainwright's sudden memory lapse, which he described as an "unreliability".

"The criminal law doesn't just work on the say-so of the accused," he said.

Judge Norrish refused the application and will hand down his sentence next week.