A BOYFRIEND has been jailed for biting and battering his partner after she caught him cheating and chucked him out.

Luke Sears from Okehampton attacked the terrified young mother twice in the space of two days and forced her into giving him money by stamping on her leg until she complied.

In the second attack he asked her ‘do you want to die in this room?’ as he held his hand over her face and mouth and stopped her from breathing to torture her into giving him the password on her phone.

Sears then found that she had sent pictures of her bruised leg to a friend and accused her of trying to get him sent to jail.

He punched her when she tried to call the police and told her ‘I’ll give you something to call the police about’. He also locked her in her home in Ilfracombe to prevent her seeking refuge with neighbours.

The terrified woman only alerted the police by texting her sister when Sears wasn’t looking with the message ‘LIFE IN DANGER’, Exeter Crown Court was told.

She wrote a victim impact statement saying she was devastated by what happened to her and described her ordeal as ‘mental torture’.

Hotel worker Sears, aged 26, admitted two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm and was jailed for 18 months by Recorder Mr Robin Sellers.

He told him: ‘You assaulted the complainant when she was in a vulnerable position and the second assault was prolonged. One of the most aggravating features is the presence of two children in the house including a nine-year-old who was crying behind the door.’

Heather Hope, prosecuting, said the couple had been together for seven years but their relationship ended when she found Facebook messages which showed he was being unfaithful.

She confronted him and asked him to leave on June 5 this year but he refused to go until she paid him £300 he claimed to be owed. He then punched her to the ground and stamped on her leg over and over again until she agreed to transfer the money.

He left but returned on June 9 for a family visit which she only allowed on condition he was not drunk and did not repeat the violence.

In the meantime she had sent photos of her injured leg to a friend and he demanded to see her phone, attacking her again when she refused. He carried out a series of assaults in which he bit her twice, including one on her chest.

He punched her to the ground and kicked her in the stomach and ribs before locking the front door to prevent her leaving the house and resuming the attack. He forced her to hand over her phone and then suffocated her until she told him the password.

He accused her of planning to go to the police about the earlier assault and punched her in the face so hard that she was still bleeding when police arrived.

She was only able to raise the alarm after getting her phone back briefly and texting her sister with a plea to call the police.

Richard Crabb, defending, said Sears was a hard working man who helped maintain a four-star hotel in North Devon.

He had sought counselling since these incidents and now accepted the relationship was over.

He said the victim had written a letter saying she did not want him to go to jail.