A WIFE-BEATER was jailed for three-and-a-half years as a judge branded him "a bully, a coward, and an insignificant individual".

Carl Meredith's attacks were described as "ugly offences" by his own barrister when he appeared at Teesside Crown Court.

Four times in little over a month, the 29-year-old badly beat his wife – and on one occasion leaving her coughing up blood.

The court heard he has previous convictions for breaching a non-molestation order for offences against a former partner.

And in March 2008, he was cautioned for an assault on his then-girlfriend, causing a puncture wound to her face with a slap.

Jonathan Walker, mitigating, said he had stayed out of trouble and off drugs when he moved to live with his father in West Yorkshire.

But on returning to the North-East after getting together with his most recent victim, he slipped back into heroin abuse and violence.

Prosecutor Neil Jones told how the first offence was around Christmas last year, when Meredith dislocated his wife's finger.

She went to hospital with him, but told doctors she had hurt herself carrying something up the stairs.

Ten days later, as she tried to wake Meredith mid-afternoon, she was elbowed in the face and suffered an immediate eye swelling.

Three days after that, he - in her words, "battered the hell out of me" - after a row about her taking off her wedding ring.

The victim was left coughing up blood after a strangling attempt, before being repeatedly kicked to the head and the body.

Neighbours heard the terrified woman's screams and called police, but she refused to pursue any charges, said Mr Jones.

At the end of January, another "sustained and repeated" assault took place when Meredith bit her foot and punched her in the head, body and back.

Mr Walker said: "He doesn't shirk from the reason for his offending. It is completely immeshed in his heroin abuse.

"The defendant would wish for a heartfelt apology to be forwarded to [his wife]. He recognises what he put her through and exactly what that must have been like."

Meredith, who lived in Redcar, admitted three charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and a common assault, and was also served with a ten-year restraining order to stay away from his victim.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, told him: "I am satisfied of a number of things - firstly you are a bully, secondly you are a coward, and thirdly you are an insignificant individual.

"What you do is take it out on the people you are in a relationship with. You treat them as your property, essentially."