Judge Michael Tinney sentenced 33-year-old Adrian Nichols to 10 years' jail in the County Court this month.

Paraskevi Kiparissis, 35, was attacked after she fled for her life from Nichols.

The pair had been in an "on again, off again", turbulent relationship for about five years. Nichols was subject to an intervention order in 2005 after an earlier violent episode.

Judge Tinney described the attack as an act of "great brutality directed towards a totally defenceless woman".

The pair shared a flat at Beaumont Parade, West Footscray, in November 2008 and they had argued following a fishing trip to Williamstown on November 2. Nichols later attacked her after she threw a syringe at a door. She fled for her life but slipped and fell before being set upon by Nichols.

Describing part of the attack, Judge Tinney said: "You then used the fence, to jump up to obtain leverage as you jumped. That is, so that you could jump as high as you could, to then drive down your feet, or a foot, onto the head of Ms Kiparissis, who lay beneath you on the concrete."

The court heard a neighbour called out for Nichols to stop the attack. He walked back to his apartment and said to a flatmate, "I think I've f------ killed her".

"Your victim lay unconscious on the footpath, with her head in a gap between the fence and the footpath, as can be seen in some of the photographs where pooled blood can be seen," the judge said. "She had blood all over her head, and was making gurgling noises."

Ms Kiparissis was rushed to the Western Hospital, then Royal Melbourne Hospital, where she remained for four days.

She suffered a cut to the left side of her head, a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain and other brain injuries.

"It is a matter of absolute good fortune, it seems to me, that she did not sustain catastrophic injuries given the circumstances of your physical violence. Good fortune for you and for her," the judge said.

In sentencing, Judge Tinney said Nichols demonstrated no genuine remorse.

"The court must do what can be done to send to the community a message of crystal clarity that conduct of this kind is intolerable in any civilised society."