A 22-year-old man named Joel Nathan Fitzpatrick Burtt has entered a not guilty plea to numerous charges of physical and sexual assault against an unnamed woman.

As his trial opened before 14 jurors in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court today, crown prosecutor Melanie O’Connell described the Suffolk Park man as controlling and jealous.Georgopoulos)

In October 2020 while the pair were in a car driving through Cronulla, the woman received a Snapchat message from another man.

In seeing this, Fitzpatrick Burtt allegedly grabbed her phone, jumped out of the car and ran off.

He messaged the other man pretending to be the woman and arranged to meet him at Cronulla where an altercation occurred, the jury was told.Later that day, the 22-year-old allegedly grabbed the woman’s hair, forcing her to drive him to a family friend.

On the way there, he headbutted her after hearing something he didn’t like, O’Connell said.

That night in a bedroom, he allegedly put his hands around her neck and squeezed, according to 9 NEWS

“He had his other hand on her mouth and … she couldn’t breathe,” O’Connell said.

Fitzpatrick Burtt listened to these submissions from the dock, supported by family members in court.