A THUG who behaved like an “animal” repeatedly poked his ex-girlfriend in the eye and stabbed her with a pair of scissors during a brutal assault.

Paul Edge left his victim with a black eye and blood on her top after strangling, punching and biting her at her home in Abertillery.

The defendant had also poured cooking oil over her during an earlier campaign of controlling behaviour against her.

MORE NEWS

Prosecutor Paul Hewitt said: “On January 16 the defendant launched an attack on her, punching her all over her body, he bit her nose, bit her to the right breast area and repeatedly poked her in the right eye with his fingers.

“He used scissors to stab her in the leg and grabbed her hair straightners and used the cord to wrap around her neck and strangle her.”

Mr Hewitt told Cardiff Crown Court the woman said in a victim impact statement: “I constantly fear for my safety.

“I feel terrified that he’s going to be released from prison and carry out the threats he has made against me.”

Edge, 41, admitted controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH).

The offending took place between January 1, 2019 and January 16, 2022.

The defendant has 22 previous convictions for 57 offences, Mr Hewitt added.

These include robbery, ABH, common assault and breaching a restraining order.

Jeffrey Jones, representing Edge, asked the court to give his client credit for his guilty pleas.

The judge, Recorder Neil Owen-Casey told the defendant: “You acted in an appalling manner.”

Referring to the assault he said: “The police described her as being in a lot of pain when they saw her and struggling to move about.

“You denied any responsibility yet the evidence before the court is that you acted with extreme violence and had no thought over the impact of your actions upon her.

“You behaved like an animal.”

The judge added: “You tried to humiliate and degrade her.”

Edge, of Parc Terrace, Senghenydd, Caerphilly, was jailed for 30 months and told he will serve half that sentence in prison before being released on licence.

The defendant was made the subject of a five-year restraining order not to contact the victim and must pay a victim surcharge following his release from custody.