A brutal thug strangled, headbutted and hit his devoted girlfriend, shattering her cheek bone, as she held their baby daughter in her arms.
The woman had initially thought that she was in a "fairy tale" romance with Thomas Escreet, 30, and said: "I was swept off my feet in love."
However he soon changed, became more aggressive with her and what she thought was a dream had already turned "toxic" and "sour" before she confronted him about sleeping with other women, Hull Crown Court heard.
Escreet, of Hull, admitted to inflicting grievous bodily harm on the woman on June 28 as well as assaulting her, causing actual bodily harm, on March 18, 2021, and sending vile messages on May 9, Hull Live reports.
Prosecutor, David Godfrey, said that Escreet started a relationship with the woman, who is now aged 29, in July 2019 and she became pregnant in October 2019.
They had a daughter and it was at first a "very positive relationship" that she described as a "fairy tale" but things quickly changed.
"He became more controlling, particularly when she wanted to go out," said Mr Godfrey. There was violence and the most serious incident happened after the woman received a message from another woman saying that she had been sleeping with Escreet.
The girlfriend challenged him about it and asked what was going on. "She called him out on his behaviour and was saying that she was going to leave and made attempts to do so," said Mr Godfrey. The woman had her then 10-month-old daughter with her in a pram.
"She still had strong feelings for him," said Mr Godfrey. "She attempted to leave the property with her child but he became aggressive and she wasn't allowed to do so." He took the baby from the pram and swung the pram around, saying that he would "get off his head and sleep with lots of girls".
"She was very scared and ran away from him but he put his daughter down, grabbed the woman by the throat with both hands, headbutted her and slammed her head down before continuing to squeeze her neck until she was struggling to breathe. She picked her daughter up in her arms and the defendant punched her repeatedly to the face with really hard punches," said Mr Godfrey.
"She was holding her daughter at this very time. She collapsed to her knees and he continued to punch her."
The woman fell out of the door and into the street, where a concerned female neighbour came to her aid. The victim suffered a fractured cheekbone.
In an earlier assault, Escreet threatened the woman and, in temper, picked up a wooden coat hanger and whipped her across the legs with it. He told her: "Does it hurt? Good. I'm going to do it some more."
In a later malicious text message, he called her a "two-faced c***" and threatened to "burn down your f***ing house". The woman said in a statement that she read in court: "I was swept off my feet in love" and she described it as, at first, a "fairy tale" romance.
But she now felt "broken and ashamed" and said: "My heart is literally broken" and "I am scared of my own shadow".
She spent two years "walking on egg shells trying to make him happy" but she had been left feeling nervous and anxious. The victim said that she later did not want to go to work and could not eat food properly for six to eight weeks and had to eat soft food and liquids.
"I have still got a delve in my face," she said. "It just reminds me of all of it."
Rachel Scott, mitigating, said that Escreet behaved "terribly" during the violent incidents.
"This is a serious offence. This is a relationship had turned very toxic and turned sour," said Miss Scott. "This relationship was very up and down. He thought that he would not be able to see his daughter ever again.
"He behaved out of character. He does not want to put this complainant through any more distress. If he could turn the clock back, he would. H
Escreet had no previous convictions and had no violence on his record whatsoever. He left school with very poor GCSEs but qualified as a plumber, worked in a bottle top factory and, over a period of eight or nine years, worked his way up to become an engineer.
He had also volunteered as a coastguard for four years. Judge John Thackray QC told Escreet: "The only reason it turned toxic is because you were violent, aggressive and controlling. Violence in a domestic context is not less serious, it is more serious. All episodes of domestic violence are serious.
This was a "particularly appalling" incident of domestic violence.
"There is no doubt that your offending has had a profound psychological effect on her," said Judge Thackray., adding: There was the infliction of serious injuries. There was strangulation and the incident was prolonged."
Escreet was jailed for two years and three months and was given a five-year restraining order.
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