A MAN has been jailed for two years after launching a 'diabolical' attack on his partner – which left her needing five operations on her face afterwards.

Thirty-Five year old Robert Greenwell was drunk and had taken drugs when he attacked the woman in her home in Coulby Newham on August 29, 2019.

Jurors had heard how the vicious assault took place in front of their children as the family dog tried to protect her.

He repeatedly punched her and tried to strangle her until she was able to hit him with a cup and fled into a neighbour’s garden, Teesside Crown Court was told.

The Northern Echo: Robert GreenwellRobert Greenwell

Judge Howard Crowson sentenced Greenwell to two years in prison for the violent assault.

He said: "It was a diabolical level of injury caused.

“She has metal plates in her face and in March this year she was receiving ongoing treatment after four operations on her face and she was due to have plastic surgery.

“She had to leave her job in accountancy.”

Greenwell, of The Meadows, Middlesbrough, claimed that she attacked him and he had only acted in self-defence.

A jury found him guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Greenwell was also made subject of a five year restraining order banning him from contacting her or referring to her, directly or indirectly, on social media.