The Victorian man, now aged 43, started his campaign of relentless violence, psychological torment and coercive control at the age of 16.

Often motivated by an intense and misguided jealousy, the man would regularly punch his girlfriend, also aged 16, in her kidneys while she slept.

A Victorian court on Thursday heard he was "gun happy" and kept loaded firearms under their bed. At one time, he hit his girlfriend with the butt of the gun.

He cut her stomach with a knife while she was pregnant, regularly beat her, and raped her on several occasions, including one time in public.

In his 20s, he moved on with another partner, who described her pregnancy as "nine months of hell".

He stabbed that woman, repeatedly threatened to kill her young son, and at one time kept her locked in his suburban Melbourne unit for days.

The man assaulted his partner in the unit through that time, often stripping her naked and choking her until she became unconscious.

At age 31, he held another of his partners against her will. She was 16, homeless, and unemployed when he took her back to his bungalow on his mother's property.

He accused her of looking at another man on the train, picked her up by her throat, and punched her in the face.

He kept her locked in the bungalow for about a week, following her into the main house when she needed to use the bathroom.

"He was like my shadow - I wasn't able to leave his side. He made it very clear I was his property," the woman told the court.

The teen tried to escape on two occasions. The first time, the man's teenage son yelled out to him that she was trying to leave. The man took her back to the bungalow and spear tackled her to the ground.

In his mid-30s, the man moved into another woman's house without invitation.

He went on to stab her twice in her arms, consistently beat her, and on one occasion struck her shin with the claw end of a hammer, resulting in a 10cm gash. He did not let her seek medical treatment.

The woman said he did not care about "parading" her around, even with her constant bruises and injuries.

"He'd present me at cop shops when he had to sign in on bail," she told the court.

A Victorian judge, in sentencing the abuser on Thursday, said his "flagrant disregard for the law" was best displayed by the fact he did take his victims with him to police stations when reporting on bail.

The judge noted the man had offended against two other intimate partners in matters already dealt with by the courts.

She described his crimes against the four other women as extreme, constant, unrelenting degradation and control, which was punctuated by violence and sexual aggression.

The judge sentenced the man to a total 25 years and five months in prison, with a non-parole period of 20 years and 10 months.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

Australian Associated Press