The judge gave a candid assessment of the man who threatened Brittany Higgins, her husband and her pet dog, saying he might just be a "terrible person."

David William Wonnocott was sentenced to three years and two months in prison at Sydney's Downing Centre Court on Wednesday. He must serve for at least 16 months.

The court was told that the 51-year-old lived with his mother in northern New South Wales and has a vast history of sending messages about hate, homosexuality, racism and misogyny online.

Higgins publicly accused her of being raped at the Parliament in 2019 by Bruce Lehrmann. Lehrmann denied the allegations.

In 2022, Wonnocott sent an Instagram message to Higgins partner David Sharaz, leading the couple to genuinely worry about their safety and eventually left Australia for France.

He was also sentenced on Friday for an unrelated online rampage in 2023, in which he sent nearly 50 hateful messages, including NSW MP Alex Greenwich.

Wonnocott pleaded guilty to multiple charges of using a carriage service that threatened to kill, threaten, offend or harassment.

During a long back-and-forth back and forth on Instagram with Sharaz, Wonnocott threatens to kill him, Higgins and cut his dog into "little pieces."

"I know the truth...I want to visit you."

When asked what he would do to visit them, Wonnocott replied with a skull, bone and coffin emoji: "I will bury you both."

Sharaz then asked Wonnocott if he knew where they lived.

Wonnocott replied: "I'm going to cut Kingston into small pieces and I'm going to follow you home from get off work and destroy everyone."

Before the sentence was delivered, Higgins posted on social media that this behavior had a realistic impact on the person on the receiving end.

"This is not the first time he has allegedly threatened others' injuries - from journalists to members of parliament," she said.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Sharaz said the threat continues to affect their lives and changes their sense of security forever.

“My wife and I have suffered a lot of public abuse since she was suspected of rape at the Parliament,” he wrote.

“However, this is Mr. Wonnocott’s escalation of the death threat, which makes us afraid to leave the house.

“In a few weeks and months, we were frightened and the next person we would meet would be the nameless, faceless stranger who threatened to end his life.”

Judge John Pickering said in the verdict that the strong public sulfuric acid against Higgins at the time might have led her and Sharaz to believe that the threat might be real.

He said: "If we were to deal with and imprison every idiot - I used the word on purpose - he said something offensive to Brittany Higgins online, then for the next decade, I will be in Sent people.”

"But that's really not what's going on here. He hopes he really feels like it's not just another idiot online."

Pickering added that Wonnocott's apparent number and scope of hatred "may reflect that he is a very bad guy with a bad view".

Wonnocott has been previously convicted of offensive comments about gay people in the ABC and has made encouraging comments online about the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting, with more than 50 people killed.