'Gratuitous degradation of the victim': Violent boyfriend left woman covered in bruises by attacking her with cooker door handle and biting her during six-hour attack in her home in Leeds

Nathan Riding-Brown was jailed over the attack which involved "gratuitous degradation" of the woman in her own home as her children were in the property in Middleton.

The 30-year-old has previous convictions for violence against former partners

Ashleigh Metcalfe, prosecuting, said Riding-Brown and the woman had been in an on-off relationship since October 2018.

The defendant first attacked the victim on March 14, 2019, when she tried to end the relationship.

She agreed to meet Riding-Brown for a drink at a pub but he became violent when they went to back to a friend's house in the Seacroft area.

The prosecutor said Riding-Brown 'flipped' and pushed her hard in the chest, causing bruising.

Riding-Brown took the woman's handbag and phone from her and stopped her leaving the house.

She managed to get home after he went to bed.

The mum was subjected to a serious assault in her home in Middleton six days later after she made another attempt to end the relationship.

Ms Metcalfe said the defendant took her mobile phone and keys and shouted vile abuse at her.

He pushed her repeatedly against a cooker and the handle on the appliance broke off.

Riding-Brown then used the handle to hit his partner repeatedly all over her body.

The victim's two children were in the property at the time and she tried to get out of the house to raise the alarm.

She pleaded with him to stop the attack but he continued to assault her in the bedroom.

He grabbed her by her hair and strangled her with one hand.

Ms Metcalfe said: "She was struggling to breathe and was close to passing out a number of times."

Riding-Brown then sat on top of the victim and bit her three times.

The attack lasted around six hours. Riding-Brown also dragged the victim around the house by her hair.

He banged her head against a wall and against a clothing rail so hard that it broke.

Riding-Brown refused to let the woman leave the house until the next day so she could take her children to school.

Riding-Brown, of Naburn Place, Whinmoor, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault.

The prosecutor said the offending was aggravated by the prolonged nature of the attack, adding: "This was gratuitous degradation of the victim."

In a victim statement to the court, the woman said: "I was so scared that he would kill me and I honestly thought that he would."

She described how she suffered concussion for days after the assault and her eight-year-old daughter was traumatised from hearing the attack

Charles Blatchford, mitigating, said Riding-Brown had a problem with alcohol which has been receiving help for while in custody.

He added: "This was a mutually destructive relationship. These two people were not good for each other."

Riding-Brown was jailed for 23 months.

Sentencing, Recorder Tahir Khan QC said: "Over the course of about six hours you repeatedly used unlawful violence and she thought you were going to kill her.

"She suffered bruises to almost every part of her body and I have no hesitation in concluding that this was a serious and sustained attack you carried out over a protracted period."