Paranoid Leeds thug put his girlfriend in a dog cage and swallowed her SIM card

Patrick Middleton, 34, was jailed for two years after a court heard he held a knife to her throat and punched her repeatedly during the incident at her home in Leeds.

Leeds Crown Court heard Middleton had activated an app on the victim's mobile phone to keep track of her whereabouts after she ended the relationship in early December last year.

Mehran Nassiri said Middleton was carrying a knife and had no shoes on when he entered the woman's home home shortly after she had returned home from a night out with friends on December 23.

Middleton pushed the woman into a dog cage and held the weapon close to her throat.

The woman suffered cuts to her fingers as she grabbed the blade of the knife, fearing she was going to be stabbed.

Middleton then dragged the woman around the house by her hair.

Mr Nassiri said: "He punched the complainant a number of times throughout the five-hour ordeal while she was captive in the residence."

The court heard Middleton snorted cocaine throughout the incident and appeared paranoid.

Middleton also threatened to cut off her arms, removed a ring and bracelet from her and smashed her mobile phone.

Middleton took the SIM card out of the phone and swallowed it.

The victim suffered cuts to her arms and scratches and bruises to her knees, legs and body.

After the attack, the victim told police: "I have never been so scared in all my life. I thought he was going to kill me."

Mr Nassiri said Middleton carried out another attack on the same woman just over a fortnight earlier, on December 7, after she ended the relationship and asked him to leave her home.

Middleton grabbed her head and forced it into a mirror, causing her to need stitches.

Middleton, of Cranmore Crescent, Belle Isle, pleaded guilty to two offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Mark McKone, mitigating, said: "It's apparent to him that he fell in love with this complainant to such an extent that it caused him to behave irrationally when he thought the relationship was breaking down."