A remorseless woman beater split his girlfriend's head open with a glass ashtray and jug before washing the blood from her hair.
Kevin Marshall told his victim "I may as well do you in, I'll only get seven years" before leaving her covered in blood in a cowardly attack.
A judge slammed him for his lack of empathy after he told a probation officer: "It weren't like she were bleeding out and asking for help, I carried on hitting her."
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Liverpool Crown Court heard Marshall, 33, and the woman, who the ECHO has chosen not to name, had been in an "on/off" relationship for about two years.
The court heard Marshall had been violent to her in the past and smashed household items at her home, while he had also just been released from prison after being jailed for breaching a Domestic Violence Protection Order, made in respect of another woman.
But on December 26 last year, the victim phoned him and asked him to come to her home, where he stayed over New Year, without any violence or arguments.
Chris Hopkins, prosecuting, said on January 6 they went to The Glass House Wetherspoon pub in St Helens, where during a row he pushed her to the ground.
She felt scared about what would happen if she tried to leave and they had a few more drinks before staff refused to serve Marshall because of concerns about his "aggressive behaviour".
The pair stopped at a supermarket to buy more cans of alcohol before they went back to the woman's flat where they continued to drink and again argued.
Mr Hopkins said the woman said Marshall slapped her and pulled her hair, then "picked up some knives and began stabbing them into the walls".
The court heard he told her: "I may as well do you in, I'll only get seven years."
Mr Hopkins said he hit her over the head with the ashtray and jug, leaving her "covered in blood", with "blood all over the room", then refused to give her a towel.
She went into a bathroom to clean up, but when she came back he dragged her onto the bed and "punched and elbowed" her in the back and side, as she was "fearing for her life".
The victim wrapped a towel around her head and fell asleep, only to wake the next day with her hair "matted with dry blood", when Marshall encouraged her to ring 101 because that wouldn't involve the police.
Mr Hopkins said she got a taxi to hospital, where "they had to cut a lot of her hair off" before she received five stitches to a cut to the top of her head, four stitches for a cut to her left ear, butterfly stitches to her nose and treatment for a broken left collarbone and scratched eye.
The court heard she got a taxi home, where Marshall was still present and washed her hair, but after two quiet days, they argued again on January 10 and when he left to go to the gym on January 11, she fled to a women's refuge and spoke to police.
When interviewed, Marshall told officers his victim was lying and it was a "malicious allegation".
However, he later admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at a plea hearing.
Marshall, of no fixed address, has 41 previous convictions for 58 offences, including assaults, thefts, drugs matters and 11 breaches of court orders.
The judge, Recorder Ian Harris, said he had read a pre-sentence report, which contained comments of "concern".
Daniel Bramhall, defending, said his client had mainly accepted responsibility for what happened, but disagreed with elements of the victim's account.
He said his client suffered with mental health problems and had been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.
The lawyer said Marshall claimed he was "unlike other people in the sense that somebody seems to take over him".
Mr Bramhall said he had a "very difficult upbringing", when he was the victim of thefts and robberies, and Marshall said "his father used to mentally torture him".
Recorder Harris told Marshall that in the pre-sentence report "you display no remorse, in fact you continue to blame your victim and showed no empathy at all".
He said: "You said to the probation officer 'it weren't like she were bleeding out and asking for help, I carried on hitting her'.
"You said you had mental health issues and 'stuff was telling me to do more stuff to her'.
"You said again to the officer that your victim wouldn't have been affected by your behaviour and you said she wouldn't have been but she was 'barmy'.
"You also indicated you were drinking 12 cans of strong beer a day before you were remanded into custody."
Referring to his past violence and breaches of orders, the judge found Marshall was "dangerous", as defined in law.
He jailed him for five years and three months, with an extended three years on licence, and made an indefinite restraining order.
This type of sentence means Marshall must serve at least three and a half years in prison, before he can ask for his release.
He will only be released before the end of his sentence if the Parole Board considers he is no longer a risk.
If you have been affected by any issues mentioned in this article, you can contact the Domestic Violence Helpline for free on 0808 2000 247 or any of the following organisations:
People can also call Merseyside Police on 101 or, if they are in immediate danger, call 999.
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