A domestic abuser who repeatedly punched his ex-girlfriend in the head, spat in her face, and dragged her by the throat has been jailed.

Martin Williams, 35, also jumped on his victim and gouged her eye until it turned purple, before punching her so many times “she lost count.”

Following the attack at her Bredgar Close home in Ashford on November 30 she told police: “I believed he was going to kill me, I’ve never been so scared in all my life.

“I’m scared of the way he looks at me, his eyes go black.

“It is like he is looking right through you.”

The court heard Williams, who lives in a hotel paid for by Folkestone and Hythe District Council, began the abuse after seeing a text on his ex-partner’s phone.

Prosecuting barrister Peter Forbes said: “He punched her in the side of the head, spat at her, grabbed her throat and dragged her off the sofa.

“He kept spitting and slapping her face.

“He jumped on her and stuck his thumb into her eye causing purple bruising.

“She screamed out for someone to call the police.

“He then punched her in the head again, she doesn’t know how many times, she was trying to protect herself.”

When she escaped upstairs to protect her baby Williams followed her.

He spat in her face and threw a glass ashtray at her as she cowered on the floor.

Mr Forbes continued: “He punched her again in the head.

“She went to the bathroom to clean the spit up and was punched again.”

The court heard the victim managed to get Martin outside her property, but he returned and hit her in the face with a shoe.

He attacked her again the same day after she picked her child up from school.

Judge Rupert Lowe said: “You think this is what real men do but real men do not act like this – that’s what violent misogynistic men do.

“You were screaming and shouting at her, punched her, and not content with that, spat in her face.

“The most serious part was that you stuck your thumb in her eye, gouging her eye, you did that twice.

“You continued to punch her again and again so many times that she lost count.

“You think this is what real men do but real men do not act like this – that’s what violent misogynistic men do - Judge Lowe

“You kicked her in the shin. It hurt so much she thought you had broken her leg.

“I’ve watched you shaking your head as I have described what happened which shows a high level of denial.

“You may not think it is true but it is true.”

Judge Lowe sentenced the father-of-four, who pleaded guilty to occasioning actual bodily harm, to 18 months in jail.

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