An abuser who attacked a woman with an axe leaving her with a “gaping wound” has been jailed.

Curtis Wright of Dover punched his girlfriend in the face with such force it knocked out a tooth and split her lip, during a row over a video-game.

Months later, he would rain a hand-axe on his partner’s friend, leaving her arm with a “gaping wound” as she tried protecting herself.

Wright was jailed for 14-months at Canterbury Crown Court after pleading guilty to two counts of causing actual bodily harm at a previous hearing.

The 23-year-old attacked now ex-partner at his Dover home in March 2020, she required urgent dental surgery including a splint.

Wright then locked her out during another argument in January this year and, when she returned with a friend, armed himself.

“Her friend broke the door and went in.

"She put up her arms defensively and received a nasty wound on the elbow which bled heavily...”

“She came in to find you holding the axe looking angry and breathing heavily - you raised it above your head and brought it down on her,” Judge Rupert Lowe said.

“She put up her arms defensively and received a nasty wound on the elbow which bled heavily.”

The court heard the victim was left with a “gaping wound” and Wright, following his arrest, told officers: “I had an axe in my hand and I cut her”.

Describing the first attack Judge Lowe told Wright, who appeared from HMP Elmley via videolink: “It is a domestic assault, a nasty assault by a man on his female partner where there is an imbalance in physical strength and aggression.”

Wright, who has no previous convictions would later give a no comment interview but pleaded guilty to both assaults in front of magistrates.

Oliver Kirk, mitigating, told the court Wright, of Erith Street in Dover, suffers mental health problems following family bereavement and he “struggles with interpersonal relationships and a drink problem”.

“He is a man who clearly has suffered depression and has very much woken up to the seriousness of his position and he is a man probation has assessed they can work with,” he continued.

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