A MAN has been jailed after carrying out a “sadistic attack” on his girlfriend in which she was strangled, bitten and punched in the jaw.

Craig Goldsworthy’s victim thought she was going to die when he turned on her following a drinking session in Newport.

He threatened to kill her and her father and told her he “would go back to prison for murder”.

The city’s crown court heard how the defendant carried out the horrific assault whilst on licence after being jailed for 10 years in 2013.

That was following his conviction for aggravated burglary and wounding, a brutal attack he and an accomplice carried out on a man in Newport with a metal bar.

Bethan Evans, prosecuting, said Goldsworthy’s latest offence was committed after he and his then girlfriend had been on a pub crawl in Newport with his friends.

The court heard how the defendant’s mood soured when his pals left and he chased her after she ran away from him in the Angel on West Street.

Miss Evans said: “He gripped her by the neck and lifted her off the ground before slamming her to the floor. She lost consciousness.

“She said the defendant was then strangling her and picked her up by one hand.”

The court heard how the appalling violence continued when they went home.

Miss Evans continued: “He started to say to the complainant that she had been unfaithful to him when he was in prison and that he wanted to kill her father.”

The defendant then hit a pet dog with a glass candle jar and kicked it across the room.

The prosecutor added: “He gripped the complainant around the throat and started squeezing so that she could not breathe.

“The defendant told her she could not keep her mouth shut and that she deserved a slap.

“He threatened to kill her and said he didn’t care and would go back to prison for murder.

“He threatened to smash the glass candle jar over her head and bit her nose - she started to scream.

“The defendant put both his hands around her throat and started to choke her again.

“She was gasping for air and she thought she was going to die. He then punched her twice to the jaw.

“He screamed at her that she had ruined his life.”

The court was told her ordeal only came to an end when she managed to flee the house and neighbours intervened and helped her.

Goldsworthy, aged 34, of Caerau Road, Newport, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, committed on September 3.

Stephen Thomas, mitigating, said his client had entered an immediate guilty plea.

He added: “The offence was committed in drink, but he doesn’t use that as an excuse - it is an aggravating factor.”

Mr Thomas said Goldsworthy, by his own admission, had admitted he had “gone nuts” that night.

The court heard the relationship between the defendant and the woman was now over but she did not want a restraining order imposed.

Judge Daniel Williams told Goldsworthy: “This was a sustained and sadistic attack. Your victim thought she was going to die.”

For his “gratuitous degradation” of the woman, he was jailed for two years and eight months.

Because he has been recalled to prison, Goldsworthy will not be released from jail until December 2022.