A bully throttled his partner until it felt like “her eyes would pop out” and ordered she use a bucket as a toilet.

Abuser Jack McGuire, of Dover, also sunk his teeth into his girlfriend's forehead and dragged her around by the hair, while accusing her of messaging other men.

The 23-year-old was jailed at Canterbury Crown Court after admitting controlling and coercive behaviour, between January 2021 and June 2022.

Prosecutors described how McGuire launched numerous physical and verbal assaults.

Bridget Todd explained on another occasion he pinned her against a door and held a blade to her throat.

The court heard McGuire accused her of infidelity, then stamped on her phone and hand, while she felt intoxicated after a night out.

She then felt McGuire strangling her “to the point she couldn’t breathe” and feeling like her “eyes were going to pop out of her head”, Miss Todd explained.

McGuire then bit her forehead and forearm, then pulled her around the room by the hair, as she screamed for help.

He also told her if she wished to continue the relationship she could not own a phone and must “go to the toilet in the bucket”, Miss Todd said.

During another attack he spat in her face, took crack cocaine, and while hallucinating stabbed the curtains with a knife.

He then stamped on her glasses, threw a drawer across the room, pinned her against the door and held the blade to her throat.

The court heard his victim suffered hair loss, stopped going to work and was treated at Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital for an overdose.

In a victim impact statement, she told the court: “Since my relationship with Jack has become abusive I have become seriously stressed where my hair has fallen out.”

She added she needed to be escorted by friends while she was outside and felt “on edge, constantly looking around”.

“I hate men at the moment,” she added.

“Since my relationship with Jack has become abusive I have become seriously stressed where my hair has fallen out..."

McGuire, of St David’s Avenue, pleaded guilty before trial to controlling and coercive behaviour in a relationship, two counts of damaging property, and causing actual bodily harm.

Representing McGuire, Phil Rowley said his client sought to address difficulties with cannabis and crack cocaine while being held on remand for five months.

He added McGuire wished to move away from the area upon his release and find work on the railway lines with regular drug testing.

Mr Rowley said McGuire had “genuine remorse” and “proper insight into why this happens”, with a “very real resolve” to mend his ways.

He added McGuire “didn’t challenge” an application for a restraining order because he “entirely accepts the relationship is over”.

“[There is] no candle still flickering here at all,” Mr Rowley said.

Handing down a two-year sentence and 10-year restraining order last Wednesday, Judge Catherine Brown labelled McGuire’s actions “disgraceful”.