A BULLYING boyfriend who subjected his partner to a terrifying late-night attack has been banned from going anywhere near her for ten years.

Christopher Mann, 31, was yesterday spared prison because he has spent the equivalent of a five-month sentence on remand and a tagged curfew.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, told the brute: "You carried out an assault which went on for a long time. It was prolonged and persistent.

"I have seen the photographs of the marks you left. They were physical marks. Goodness knows what the psychological marks are you left."

Mann, of Portract Lane, Stockton, was given a community order with two years of supervision after he admitted a charge of assault by beating.

Teesside Crown Court heard how returned home from a night out with a friend at 3.30am, and launched the sudden attack on his girlfriend.

Prosecutor John Gillette told the court that the woman was pulled to the floor by her hair and had her head stamped on by Mann.

As she tried to flee the flat, she heard Mann open a cutlery drawer, and shout out: "I'll f***ing stab you . . . believe me, I'll do it."

Mr Gillette said the victim ran down the stairs, but was then pulled down by the hair, bitten and had her head banged off walls.

At the bottom of the stairs, she was kicked in the stomach, before fleeing outside where Mann continued the attack until a passer-by beat him up.

Cath Fagan, mitigating, said Mann needed help, now accepted the relationship was over, and understands the restraining order.