A MAN put a rope around his girlfriend’s neck in a Homebase store and joked he would kill her before viciously beating her days later, a court heard.
Jonathan Talmage, of Bridgeman Road, Blacon, told his then girlfriend Zoe Evans on several occasions over a two week period he was going to kill her.
Chester Crown Court heard Talmage, 22, punched and kicked Miss Evans repeatedly on the evening of December 18.
He left her with severe wounds around her right eye, extensive bruising to her face, arms and legs and displaced one of Miss Evans’ front teeth in the frenzied attack at her flat in Neston.
The court heard Talmage had made numerous threats on Miss Evans’ life during a sustained period of verbal and physical abuse in the early part of December, culminating in the vicious attack, in which Talmage used a screwdriver to threaten his girlfriend.
Talmage pleaded guilty to two charges of putting a person in fear of their safety by using threatening language or behaviour and actual bodily harm.
The court was told Talmage, who had been released from prison on licence for a previous offence, threatened Miss Evans with violence whenever he was bored and called her a ‘slag’ and ‘prostitute’.
Wyn Lloyd-Jones, prosecuting, said: “The pair had met on Facebook earlier in the year and had initially enjoyed a good relationship.
“In early December the defendant became abusive and controlling. This culminated in violent and sustained abuse.
“Whenever he was bored he would threaten her and abuse her verbally and he made a considerable number of threats, telling her he was going to kill her and that ‘she would never be able to walk down the street with another man ever again’.”
The court heard how during a shopping trip to Homebase in Bromborough, Wirral, in early December, Talmage put a rope around the neck of his partner and said he could kill her if he wanted to.
Mr Wyn-Jones said the couple had been out together on the evening on December 18 and had returned to Miss Evans’ flat in Hinderton Road.
He said: “The defendant became aggressive and then said he was going to bed and told his girlfriend she should sleep in the spare room, which she refused.
“The defendant then went to the bedroom and began playing extremely loud music and was told to stop by his girlfriend, to which he replied he was bored and could do whatever he liked.
“He then physically forced her into the spare room and held the door closed for around 20 minutes, telling her ‘she was going nowhere’. After this time, he opened the door and grabbed her by the face.
“He pushed the victim onto the sofa, took a screwdriver and began stabbing the sofa around the victims body violently.
“Despite her pleading with him to stop he punched and kicked her, leaving her with a nasty wound to the right side of her face and extensive bruising. He also displaced one of her front teeth.”
Mr Wyn-Jones told the court Miss Evans fled to a neighbour’s flat and the police were called.
Talmage was arrested a short time later at mother’s home in Blacon.
He initially told officers Miss Evans had made up the story because he had refused to take part in IVF treatment.
Peter Moss, defending, said Talmage accepted he had behaved in an “appalling way” and was trying to turn his life around.
“He wants to apologise to his ex-partner for what went on in December,” said Mr Moss.
“He was suffering from depression and had been drinking on the night of the attack.”
The Recorder of Chester Judge Elgan Edwards jailed Talmage for 21 months and imposed a restraining order forbidding him from coming within 100 metres of Miss Evans for the next five years.
In 2009 Talmage, then 18, was sentenced to 30 months in a young offenders institute for five robberies in which he used violence and intimidation to rob MP3 players and mobile phones from his victims.