Warwick Payne yells at Justice David Mossop after being jailed for throwing knives at woman

Warwick James Payne, 53, yelled at Justice David Mossop in the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday after the judge sentenced him to three years, three months and 10 days in jail.

He thundered about wanting to "appeal this right now" as he was led away, having just been ordered to serve at least two years and three months without parole.

Payne pleaded guilty in July, on what was to be the first day of his trial, to charges of forcible confinement, choking, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault and assaulting a frontline worker.

Agreed facts show the victim, a friend of his aged in her 30s, spent a few hours at his Hawker unit drinking beers and smoking cannabis one night in June last year.

She left without her handbag and returned to collect it the following afternoon, only for Payne to push her over and tell her he was going to make her his "white bitch".

He then began demanding to know who had sent her to his place, bizarrely insisting she had come to kill him.

"She told him nobody [had sent her] and that she was just getting her handbag," the agreed facts state.

At some point, Payne told the woman he was a hitman for the Comanchero bikie gang.

While continually refusing to let the victim leave, Payne grabbed her by the hair and around the throat.

He also punched her in the face and headbutted her, causing blood to flow from the woman's nose.

About an hour into the incident he went to the kitchen and began hurling knives at the victim, who hurriedly hid them after they bounced off the walls.

"The victim was extremely scared at this time, the offender having thrown three or four knives at her," the agreed facts say.

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At another stage, Payne swiped at the victim with a knife and cut her hand as she held it up to defend herself.

"Oh, now you're bleeding all over the f---ing place," he said.

Eventually, after up to eight-and-a-half hours of confinement and what Justice Mossop called "a taxi expedition" to buy alcohol, Payne walked the victim home to her place.

She reported the incident to police a few hours later.

When officers subsequently turned up at Payne's unit to execute a warrant, he answered the door by asking: "Is this about that girl from last night? Did she squeal?"

He was later taken, in custody, to Canberra Hospital to be treated for chest pains.

There, he hit a male nurse before spitting at both him and a female police constable.

In the weeks that followed, while Payne was in jail on remand, he was recorded calling the victim various derogatory names on the phone.

In court on Wednesday afternoon, Justice Mossop said he had kept the contents of these calls in mind when considering the claims made by Payne on the witness stand.

Earlier in the day, Payne had said he felt "sorrow for the ordeal I done to this young lady".

"I'm just so sorry for it. I feel for her," he told the court.

The victim also discussed the incident, and how it had left her feeling like the world had "no more light in it", in a statement read out by prosecutor Andrew Chatterton.

"I honestly thought that night was the last night of my life," she wrote.

The woman described how Payne's actions had turned her from a caring, thoughtful, happy, creative and generous person into someone who now struggled to leave home because of fear.

She addressed Payne directly, saying this would be the last time she ever thought about him.

"I will let go of the daunting, terrifying image of what you did," she wrote. "I will heal."

In sentencing, Justice Mossop said it was not entirely clear why Payne, a father of five who considers himself a leader in the Aboriginal community, did what he did.

But the judge said "the offender's voluntary use of cannabis" appeared to have been a significant factor, saying there was evidence Payne had used the drug despite knowing it made him "paranoid and aggro".

After Justice Mossop had handed down the sentence, Payne shouted from the dock.

He claimed a number of things contained in the facts he had agreed to were not true, saying "I am not no hitman for no MC", then adding "there was only one knife thrown".

"I would like to appeal this right now," he yelled.

With time already served, Payne will become eligible for parole next September.

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