A JUDGE branded an attacker a coward and a bully as he jailed the lout for fracturing his girlfriend's jaw.

Matthew Dale was locked up for 15 months for the sustained assault on his partner at her home in Stockton.

Dale, 23, repeatedly punched the young mother in the face as he sat astride her in a bedroom last December.

Teesside Crown Court heard that the victim is still suffering the emotional and physical affects.

She told in an impact statement how her children were afraid to look at her, and she now feels vulnerable and scared.

Dale shook his head in the dock as the judge, Recorder Tim Gittins, described the brutal barrage of blows.

He said: "That's a symptom of your repeated failures to recognise it's you who has a problem with temper - not other people.

"Ultimately, this was a bullying and cowardly attack on this lone female - aggravated by your previous convictions."

The court heard that Dale fractured the jaw of a man outside a nightclub six years ago, and was once involved in a criminal damage offence in a domestic setting.

He was also given a harassment warning for his behaviour towards a former partner.

Robert Mochrie, mitigating, said Dale had been upset on the day of the attack in December because his ex did not tell him about their child's nativity play.

"It was completely unjustified, but gives an insight into how his thought process was working," said the lawyer.

"It would appear the slightest provocation was to result in this violent outburst."

Dale, of Fairfield Road, Stockton, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm at an earlier court hearing.

His victim said in her statement that her eldest daughter does not want to stay in their home because of what happened there.

She said it feels like she has toothache all the time and is constantly in pain, and has trouble eating and lost weight.

Because she was unable to work because of her injuries, she was unable to pay bills and buy her daughter a birthday present.

Mr Recorder Gittins also imposed a five-year restraining order which bans Dale from going near his former partner's home.