A bullying partner forced his girlfriend's head under water, leaving her gasping for air.

And when the victim's child saw the horror at her Strood home, delivery driver Perry Jackson, 30, cruelly told the young girl: "Don't worry, mum's just splashing around."

The terrified woman fought for air after her neck had been gripped by Jackson, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

She had been relaxing in the bath at her home, when Jackson arrived, closed the bathroom door and pushed her head under the water.

Prosecutor Ian Foinette told how the woman could hear her child screaming on the other side of the door.

She was eventually able to escape and called the police despite being unable to talk.

The court heard how the couple had been in a volatile relationship - despite the love-cheat being in a long-term relationship with another woman.

The driver conducted much of his relationship with the woman via text, exchanging a staggering 6,500 messages in a short period, the court heard.

The bath incident on June 10 was triggered by a row in which Jackson had first objected to her applying make-up as she got ready to go to work, and then reacting angrily to her receiving a text from her boss.

He and the woman fought over the phone, which he threw against a wall, and she ended up with bruising to her arms and thighs.

Mr Foinette said the mum was taking a bath that evening 'hopeful the relationship was over', only to hear her boyfriend return and come up the stairs.

"He knelt down beside the bath, took hold of the back of her head and then forced her under the water," said Mr Foinette.

"She describes how she was having difficulty breathing and could hear her daughter screaming behind the bathroom door because the defendant had closed it.

"Eventually she managed to get herself out. There was water everywhere and items that had been in the bath were all over the floor.

"The defendant however had said to her daughter 'Don't worry, Mummy's just been splashing around in the bath', or words to that effect."

Mr Foinette said the woman had at some stage dialled 999 and left her phone in a position where the unfolding events could be heard.

"She was in a very distressed state. The defendant complained that she had made him wet and, to keep the peace, she offered to dry his clothes."

The prosecutor said Jackson's mood was further illustrated when officers arrested him. He was described as 'ready for confrontation' and had to be restrained on the floor once at the police station.

The court heard he called a Sikh officer a racist derogatory term and threatened: "Outside work I'm going to find you and rip your beard off your chin."

When interviewed he claimed his lover had "stitched " him up.

Jackson, formerly from Chatham, but now in Norwich, pleaded guilty to five offences of assault by beating before a jury was sworn.

He also admitted damaging the mum's phone, having a bladed article - a meat cleaver found in his car's glove compartment, racially aggravated harassment and resisting arrest.

He was jailed for 22-and-a-half months.

Judge Stephen Thomas told the violent thug: "These offences represent a serious course of conduct of domestic violence against your former partner.

"The most serious was when she was alone in the bath, thinking she was at peace and safe in her own house.

"You came into that property, grabbed her around the neck and put her head under the water, this being seen or worried about by her very young child."

The judge also said that racist abuse of the police 'cannot be tolerated'.

"You came into that property, grabbed her around the neck and put her head under the water, this being seen or worried about by her very young child..." - Judge Thomas

A five-year restraining order banning Jackson from having any contact with the woman or going to either her home address or workplace was also made.

He denied an offence of controlling and coercive behaviour, which was accepted by the prosecution and left on the court file.

Edmund Fowler, defending, said the couple's relationship was 'intense, extreme and unusual in that it was outside his domestic arrangements'.

He added 'jealousy on both sides was blown out of proportion'.

Jackson was also said have written an apology to the officer he racially abused, and the cleaver was 'not something he waved around in public' but kept for trimming hedges, Mr Fowler said.

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