Natalina Angok was a sweet soul with a heart of gold, whose life was ended by a man she chose to love.
Her killer, Christopher Allen Bell, has admitted choking her to death in a laneway in Melbourne's Chinatown last year, after his mother failed in her attempts to have him sectioned for his mental health.
Bell, now 33, admitted killing his partner of nine months just 40 minutes after police confronted him about her death in April last year.
In Victoria's Supreme Court on Wednesday he said he was in a "psychotic meltdown" at the time and is now "very regretful and very sorry" for the pain he has caused Ms Angok's family.
They described the 32-year-old as the light of her family, a loving woman with an extraordinary sense of humour.
Bell has a history of violence against women.
He was freed from prison shortly before he met her and had been released from inpatient mental health care a week before her death.
"Mum was trying to have me sectioned so I couldn't leave, but I was self-admitted," he said on Wednesday.
Bell was released to a nursing home as a transition, but fled because of delusions an elderly person was going to take over his body.
"It sounds absurd but that's what I believed," he said.
He and Ms Angok saw each other several times in the following days. Just after 5am on April 24 they walked through Chinatown arguing.
Ms Angok went down the laneway to relieve herself, and he said he wondered if he should follow to "keep an eye on her".
"Things sort of went a bit funny and then I remember being on top of her and panicking, not really knowing what was what I was doing or how I even ended up on top of her," he said.
Bell later told police he had "choked the life out of her until she breathed no longer". Her body was found about 90 minutes later.
Prosecutor Jeremy McWilliam said Bell spent an hour gambling at Crown Casino, stood on a street corner for 15 minutes eating a souvlaki and bought a bottle of wine and cigarettes before going home to bed.
Bell's lawyer Rohan Lawrence said doctors believe Ms Angok had become part of Bell's complex delusions and that he had suffered untreated schizophrenic illness for four to five years beforehand.
Ms Angok had been encouraged to leave Bell by her sister in the days before her death, because of concerns he would kill her.
"You were supposed to love and protect her ... even if my life depended on it, I will never forgive you," she said.
Ms Angok fought back during the fatal attack. Bell's DNA, from a scratch on his neck, was found under her fingernails.
Bell has four children from two previous relationships, but no longer has contact with them.
Australian Associated Press
