A woman thought she was going to be killed during a shocking attack by her friend's partner.
Wayne Carr became involved in a row with his girlfriend after returning to his caravan from a horse fair drunk. The woman rang her friend, Emma Blair, who was alarmed at hearing the woman and her children screaming.
Miss Blair rushed to the scene in her pyjamas and was immediately set upon by Carr, who punched and kicked her repeatedly and threatened to bury her.
Carr had been given a series of chances to keep his freedom but breached a suspended sentence order four times and had been given another opportunity just weeks before the attack. Now he has been locked up at Newcastle Crown Court.
The court heard Carr had returned to his caravan in Shotton Colliery, County Durham, around 11pm on May 30 last year, where his partner and twins were waiting for him. During an argument with his partner, she rang Miss Blair and asked her to call police.
Barry Robson, prosecuting, said: "Miss Blair could hear her and the children screaming and crying and she was seriously alarmed and jumped out of bed to go and help. She didn't get dressed and was in her pyjamas when she got to the caravan.
"As soon as she opened the door the defendant jumped on her. She was pulled down on the floor at the entrance and kicked in the back and back of the head a couple of times.
"She struggled up and got to the bedroom where her friend and the children were. She was again taken to the floor.
"The defendant continued to strike her and shouted he would kill her and bury her. She was struck more than five times and her nose was bleeding.
"She was panicking and thought she would be killed. She also described seeing a piece of window blind in his hand and her friend was begging him to stop. She was still being struck but is unable to say whether it was with the weapon as she was in a tight ball."
Miss Blair managed to call her boss and asked her to call police as Carr continued to punch and kick her. When told the police were coming, he fled. Miss Blair suffered bruising around both eyes, bleeding in her eye ball and a possible hairline fracture to her sinus.
Carr, who pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, had been given a deferred sentence just six weeks earlier with various conditions, including that he kept out of trouble. That was for offences of assaulting a police officer, dangerous driving and possessing cannabis. The 32-year-old, of Swan Castle Farm, Shotton Colliery, was also on a suspended prison sentence for having a bladed article.
For the assault, the offences which he was on a deferred sentence for and breaching the suspended sentence, he was jailed for a total of 30 months by Judge Robert Adams. But having been remanded in custody since last May, he was told he is likely to be free within four months.
The court heard he has 43 previous convictions, including a malicious communications offence in which he rang 999, said he had a shotgun and threatened that there would be a mass shooting.
Jamie Adams, defending, said the former Nissan worker has mental health issues and had made serious attempts to kill himself. He added: "He is articulate and has got insight into his own behaviour. He is expressing remorse about the way he has behaved."
