His victim remembered him joking about it before an incident on January 4.
Djani Christopher Brown McNeill (22) appeared for a judge-alone trial before Judge Kevin Phillips on three charges: strangulation, burglary and breaching a protection order.
However, when giving evidence, he told police prosecutor James Collins he had arranged with her to pick up his "favourite singlet".
Counsel Brendan Stephenson asked her why she did not call the police straight away when McNeill arrived, as he was breaching a trespass order.
"He walked straight in and started talking, and I thought things might be different this time, until it wasn’t," she replied.
She described their relationship as more of a sexual arrangement that she had put a stop to when she found out "what sort of person he was".
She testified she went to turn the music up and McNeill wrapped his arm around her neck from behind.
Though she could still breath, she said she struggled to peel his arm back and repeatedly told him to stop.
Once he did, she asked him to leave but he grabbed her from behind again, kissing her on the neck as he did so.
McNeill finally left when she went to call police, though she did have to push him a little, she said.
Judge Phillips said McNeill’s evidence was "an entirely different painting of the same relationship".
The defendant viewed it as romantic and said they barely had any problems, despite the trespass and protection orders made against him last year.
"She would get upset, very upset about some thing that never even happened," he said.
After about five minutes of arriving at the address, he said he gave her a hug.
"It was just a hug".
He said he did not apply any force to her neck, nor was there any physical resistance.
They then drank some beer and things started to go downhill when McNeill brought up the fact he had cheated on her a year prior "just to get her upset".
He then told her that was the last time they could talk.
McNeill testified it was then she asked him to leave, which he did after she pushed him a little and went to call the police.
He asked her not to, as he knew he would be arrested.
Judge Phillips found the police had not proven the burglary or strangulation charge as there was not enough evidence.
"It’s a she said, he said sort of case," he said.
He did, however, convict McNeill on the charge of breaching the protection order.
"I am satisfied that something went on in that house that involved the defendant taking hold of her against her wishes".
McNeill was bailed and will be sentenced on August 31.
