A thug has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for assaulting a woman during a violent struggle.

Sean Summers was cleared of attempting to rape and attempting to choke the woman before she ran half-naked into a street.

Maidstone Crown Court heard both of them had been drinking and the woman had taken some cocaine before the incident at his home in Broomfield Road, Swanscombe, in October 2013.

Summers, 28, was alleged to have grabbed her by the throat.

Prosecutor Walton Hornsby said it was “a pretty serious attempt to throttle her”.

The woman was kicking and punching throughout, and at one stage drew blood by grabbing his testicles.

The woman told how she was naked from the waist down as she fled into the street in daylight. Summers followed her, she said, and tried to bundle her into his car.

“She was kicking, punching and screaming as much as I was punching, kicking and screaming back at her" - Sean Summers

She screamed for help and was allowed into a nearby house.

Mr Hornsby said the woman was left in distress and had livid marks on her neck.

Summers denied attempted rape, attempting to choke or strangle with intent to commit rape and assault causing actual bodily. He admitted criminal damage.

He said in evidence that the violence happened after he tried to get the woman’s mobile phone from her to see who she had been talking to.

“We started to struggle,” he said. “It was then an all-out brawl. We started grabbing, punching and kicking each other. We were rolling over the floor fighting for the phone.

“I did have my hands around her neck.” Asked why, he said: “I was trying to get the phone.”

Summers continued: “She was kicking, punching and screaming as much as I was punching, kicking and screaming back at her.

“I didn’t force her to have sex. I didn’t put my hands around her throat so that I could have sex with her.

“She kicked me and I fell back and hit my head on door frame. I was semi-conscious. I was in a daze. I looked out of the window and saw her running down the street. She was half-naked.”

Summers said he went after her to “sort the mess out”. He added: “She wasn’t having any of it.”

He was acquitted of attempted rape by direction of Judge Michael Carroll and cleared of attempting to choke by the jury. The jury convicted him of actual bodily harm.