A serial domestic abuser who hit his girlfriend with a phone so hard it smashed, has been jailed.

Gary Nash’s victim begged him to stop and had blood running down her face, but he continued his attack, a court had been told.

The 39-year-old was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Monday after he pleaded guilty to assault, occasioning actual bodily harm, and criminal damage to property less than £5,000.

Over video-link, Shona Probert, prosecuting, told Maidstone Crown Court that on February 11 Nash's former partner woke up in her Maidstone home when he started hitting her in the face with her phone. He then put his hand over her face, suffocating her and leading her to almost pass out.

He swore at her and then hit her with a mug and yanked hair from her head.

She begged him to stop, but only when the victim offered him money, did he leave, taking £15 from the house.

When admitted to Maidstone Hospital, she had a black eye, a bruised cheek with a lump, a lump at the back of her head and a cut to her head.

In the summer, Nash pleaded guilty after attacking the victim twice.

"You abused a position of trust, gaining entry into her home..."

He punched her 20 times in an attack which came just weeks after police told him not to contact her, and was handed a suspended prison sentence.

By committing the assault in February, he had breached a domestic violence protection order.

Nash's counsel, Max Reeves suggested that Nash had been provoked, and launched the assault after discovering graphic messages between the victim and her ex.

However, Judge Tony Baumgartner dismissed this, saying: "No Mr Reeves, I will not accept that. It's childish and adolescent. Grown-up people do not behave in that way."

Mr Reeves said that Nash had not meant to hit the victim with a mug and he had thrown it at the wall, but it bounced off.

"He was incredibly ashamed and embarrassed," by his behaviour, Mr Reeves said.

Sentencing, Judge Baumgartner said the victim was "particularly vulnerable, in her bed at home. You abused a position of trust, gaining entry to her home."

A restraining order preventing Nash from contacting the victim was granted for five years.

As well as 20 month in prison, his suspended sentence of 126 days was activated, to run consecutively.

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