But on Thursday in court the couple were told they could be together again.

Bragg was in custody charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and contravening an apprehended violence order.

After Bragg was successfully granted bail, his girlfriend smiled broadly.

Bragg’s Aboriginal Legal Aid solicitor Mina Aresh argued for her client to be released, saying the couple were now engaged and looked forward to a life together.

She said her client was subjected to persistent abuse as a child at the hands of his grandmother’s partner.

He later turned to drugs and alcohol, and by the time he was 19 was using the drug ice (methamphetamine hydrochloride).

In evidence presented to the court, police said the victim ran out to them in a distressed state when she called them to the couple’s residence in September following one of the assaults.

Police also presented evidence of a phone conversation between the victim and her mother around the time of the assaults.

“I’m scared,” the victim told her mother.

“I want to get out of here, he hurts me.”

After listening to Ms Aresh’s argument for an intensive correction order, in which Bragg’s behaviour would be closely monitored by a number of agencies, Mr Lucas agreed to impose an order for 18 months.

“But I could be sending you to jail for two years and if you don’t do what you are told you will go back inside,” he told Bragg.