A MAN who subjected his partner to “a sustained beating”, after previous incidents of violence, was jailed for 21 months.

Daniel Waldron was said to have woken in an angry mood as he had no cannabis to smoke at about midnight on a night in mid-June last year.

Durham Crown Court heard he switched on a games console and his partner asked him to turn it off as she wanted to go to sleep, but he became angry and violent, pushing her out of bed, before slapping and punching her.

Paul Cleasby, prosecuting, said Waldron went on to drag her by the hair across the floor, and then threw a cigarette lighter at her, before squeezing her neck tightly.

The victim, who feared she was running out of breath, was made to say she would always love Waldron, before he released his grip, allowing her to leave.

Mr Cleasby said in a previous incident, in April last year, the woman, who said she felt she was “walking on egg shells” due to the defendant’s angry moods, described how Waldron went around smashing the doors at their home in Shildon.

When asked why he did it, Waldron said he struck out at the doors rather than take out his aggression on her.

Read more: Durham Crown Court: ‘Thug' bullied and controlled former partner

Following that episode, he bought new replacement doors, but did not fit any of them.

In another bout of temper, he gripped his partner’s arm tightly causing reddening.

Mr Cleasby said following his arrest, on June 16, last year, Waldron conceded it had been a “tumultuous” relationship on both sides but did make some admissions of bullying behaviour and placing his hands around his partner’s neck.

In her impact statement, read to the court, the victim said she felt Waldron “destroyed” and, “completely drained” by the relationship.

She said she was constantly made to feel like she was in the wrong, and felt like, “a prisoner in my own home”

The 24-year-old defendant, of Honister Place, Newton Aycliffe, admitted a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm on the day of his trial, having previously admitted common assault and criminal damage.

Kate Barnes, mitigating, told the sentencing hearing: “I spoke to him this morning and he was at pains to express that what he did was wrong.

“But it’s couched in the terms that it was a difficult relationship and, plainly, not healthy for either party.

“The offending was over a relatively short period and, in the intervening year, he has had nothing to do with her.”

She said he has since taken steps to “remedy” his cannabis misuse and has put his head down, working hard, six days a week, “too frightened to start a new relationship.”

Jailing him, Judge James Adkin told Waldron: “You subjected her to a sustained beating, dragging her across the floor, throwing a cigarette lighter at her and she then felt like she had nearly been strangled to death.

“You made her promise she loved you and would always come back to you, just so you would let her leave the house.”

The judge also put in place a restraining order prohibiting Waldron from contacting or approaching the victim for ten years.

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