A former soldier tore out his partner's hair, broke her ribs and "terrified" her with a knife.

Enraged Scott Parfitt, 51, ripped her off the sofa pulling out clumps of hair before brandishing the 7-inch blade inside his Folkestone flat, a jury heard.

Speaking at Canterbury Crown Court the victim said the attack left her gasping for air requiring nine days of hospital treatment.

Parfitt yanked his victim off the sofa by her hair in a row over money while screaming abuse - the back of her head shows signs of a bald patch almost five months later.

“I ended up on the floor, that’s when he got a knife poking and poking it at me, saying ‘You don’t like this do you.

'You don’t like this do you, you don’t like this do you',” she explained.

“He put the knife away, I think he pulled me up, he pushed me into the hallway bathroom door.”

'He was shouting a lot of things. I shouted stop, after that he started kicking me and punched me to the face...'

The former British Army lance corporal shoved her with such force she fell to the floor, with the violence soon intensifying.

“He was shouting a lot of things. I shouted stop, after that he started kicking me and punched me to the face,” she continued.

“He stopped and said get up, finish your wine, I sat back down, I didn’t have the wine, I wanted to leave.

“I went to leave, he pulled my handbag and said 'you’re not going anywhere'.”

The court heard Parfitt tried stamping on her mobile phone before pushing her out the front door into another wall.

“Did you call the ambulance immediately?” Prosecutor Laura Miller asked.

“Immediately - I couldn’t breathe,” she replied.

“How did this incident make you feel?” Miss Miller continued.

“Absolutely terrified,” she said.

The court heard the woman was treated at Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital for nine days after suffering broken ribs, a black-eye and bruising to the body.

Parfitt was arrested and charged with causing actual bodily harm following the incident on the evening of September 7 last year, the court heard.

He denied the attack in police interview.

Miss Miller told the court the assault came after eight previous police call-outs, including claims she had been thrown down the stairs.

No charges were brought.

Parfitt, registered as no fixed abode and represented by Paul Hogben, told the court he was a “happy go lucky soul” under the influence of alcohol and he doesn’t attack women.

But the jury found him guilty of causing actual bodily harm by majority after four hours of deliberation, for the September assault.

Parfitt stared straight ahead from the dock, his jaw tensing, as the verdict was announced.

Recorder Jeffrey Yearwood ordered reports into “dangerousness”.

“This jury has convicted him of a very serious offence,” he said.

“As far as actual bodily harm is concerned this falls in the upper bracket of gravity of the offence.

“It also forms a series of offences against his partners in a domestic setting which raises the question of repetition in the future.”

He will be sentenced in March.

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