ipswich: A man who kicked down the door to his ex-girlfriend’s flat and brutally assaulted her has been locked up for 20 months.

Andrew Warne dragged the victim out of her bedroom by her hair into the hallway and repeatedly hit her in the face, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

Warne called her names and accused her of being unfaithful. “She was terrified,” said Robert Sadd, prosecuting.

He said Warne had also thrown her against a wall and dragged her to a car.

After the incident, which happened at 4am on October 29, the victim went to hospital where she was found to have numerous facial injuries, including a black eye, a swollen lip and bumps on her forehead, a bruise on her ear and bruising on her arms and legs.

A policewoman, who saw the injuries, described them as the worst she had seen on a victim of domestic violence for many years.

Warne, 38, of Landseer Road, Ipswich, admitted using violence to secure entry to the victim’s flat in Ipswich, and assault causing actual bodily harm. He was jailed for 20 months.

Sentencing him Judge John Holt said she had been subjected to “persistent violence” on the night in question and had been left with a “dreadful” black eye.

In addition to jailing Warne, Judge Holt made him the subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting her for five years.

The court heard that Warne and the victim had a three-year-old daughter and had argued the day before the attack on her.

On the night in question she had gone out and had consumed alcohol. At around 4am Warne had knocked at the door of her flat and when it wasn’t opened he had kicked the door in.

He had then had words with a man who had been sleeping on a sofa and that man had left the premises after some violence between him and Warne, said Mr Sadd.

Lynne Shirley, for Warne, accepted the incident must have been terrifying for her.

She said Warne denied punching her with a clenched fist and said the blows were “backhanders”.

Miss Shirley said that following the attack Warne had phoned the police and handed himself in.

She said Warne had acted in the way he did because he thought she was being unfaithful.

The relationship between the two was now over although she had wanted to get back with him, said Miss Shirley.

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