A DRUNKEN yob who smashed a brick into the face of his former partner has been jailed for 22 months.

The victim suffered a fractured cheek bone and eye socket when the missile was hurled through a window at her home in Hartlepool.

Gareth Hunt, 38, had been in a three-year relationship with the woman, which she said was physically and emotionally abusive.

They had recently parted before the incident on November 18 last year, Teesside Crown Court was told by prosecutor Paul Newcombe.

The victim was woken at 7am by banging on doors and windows before a brick was thrown through one pane of glass.

Hunt put another window through with a second brick, which hit his ex-girlfriend “square in the face”, Mr Newcombe told the court.

“Police officers who attended saw her in a terrible state,” the prosecutor said. “She was bloodied, with blood covering her arms and face.

“There were fresh cuts around her right eye which was completely closed. She was taken to hospital for medical attention.”

Andrew Teate, mitigating, said Hunt – who has previous convictions for robbery, assaults, criminal damage and threatening behaviour – was sorry for what he he had done

Hunt, of Lowthian Road, Hartlepool, admitted charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm and criminal damage at an earlier hearing.

Hunt’s victim gave a statement in court, and told how surgeons inserted a metal plate into her face.

She said that she was reminded of the incident every time she looked in a mirror or applied make-up.

Mr Newcombe said: “The Crown say that she was a vulnerable woman home alone in the early hours of the morning.”

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC, said he accepted that Hunt did not intend to cause the injuries in the brick-hurling incident at her home in Hartlepool.

Mr Teate, said: “He’d struggled to accept that the relationship was over, and under the influence of alcohol he made a great error of judgment to go around to the female’s house.”

Hunt, of Lowthian Road, Hartlepool, was jailed for 22 months and given a five year restraining order banning him from contacting the woman.