A "terrifying" bully punched and strangled a woman before slamming her head into a wall - while bizarrely declaring she was injuring herself.

Domestic abuser Scott Shipwright, of Sevenoaks, spun a web of lies claiming his former partner self-harmed.

But the conniving 48-year-old was jailed on Thursday for three years after being convicted of “shocking” abuse against the frightened and isolated woman.

The father-of-two returned to his home with his on-off girlfriend after visiting Wetherspoon’s The Sennockian in High Street, Sevenoaks, with friends on May 27.

The building site foreman punched her in the face after a row broke out and, to her disbelief, immediately denied delivering the blow, his trial at Canterbury Crown Court heard.

Sounding distressed from behind a screen, the brave woman told jurors the strike almost knocked her down.

“I said, ‘you knocked my teeth out,’" she told the court.

“I said, 'you have just hit me' and he said ‘no I didn’t, no I didn’t, you did it to yourself'."

She described how, moments later, Shipwright "had his hands around my neck while hitting my head off the wall and I remember it really hurting”.

She said he was “choking me” and repeatedly “bouncing my head off a wall”.

“I said, ‘I can’t believe you just hit me,’ and he kept saying ‘no I didn’t, no I didn’t’.”

She said Shipwright bizarrely became cordial, before asserting: “I didn’t do this - you did this to yourself.”

“Just be quiet, just get home, you will be alright if you get home..."

And after she begged him to drive her to her Hertfordshire home he “turned the music up to drown out my sobbing”.

She labelled his driving “fast and erratic,” as she thought: “Just be quiet, just get home, you will be alright if you get home."

After arriving outside her home shortly after midnight, she exited the car when, to her disbelief, Shipwright asked for an apology, jurors heard.

“I got out [of] the car and slammed the door,” she explained.

As Shipwright drove off she screamed “I hate you,” prompting Shipwright to suddenly reverse towards her, the court heard.

She ran inside her home and locked her door before fleeing to her daughter’s home, who alerted the authorities.

She was treated at a nearby hospital for minor facial injuries.

During the trial, jurors heard Shipwright had two previous convictions for battery against an ex-wife and battery against a man she was with, alongside using threatening language.

During cross-examination on Wednesday, prosecutor Peter Forbes told Shipwright he was "a bully towards women - do you accept that?”

“No, that’s your opinion,” Shipwright responded.

"I loved him. I hurt because he won’t change..."

Shipwright said he was living on-site in an unfinished home on the former Padwell Inn site off Stone Street at the time of the incident.

He claimed the victim's cuts, bruises and swelling were a result of self-harming or “walking into a door frame” while he was elsewhere.

“That cut above your eye was sustained when Mr Shipwright wasn’t even in the room,” his barrister SeanSsummerfield told the victim.

“Did you walk into the door frame downstairs? Did you see that as an opportunity to get what you wanted?”

“No I did not, I did not do that,” she replied.

“Perhaps, what happened, is you deliberately cut yourself," Mr Somerville said.

“Why would I do that? All I wanted was to go home," she replied.

“I had no reason. I loved him. I hurt because he won’t change."

Shipwright, of Stone Street, was convicted by 11-1 majority of occasioning actual bodily harm.

He was acquitted of making threats to kill.

"I knew he was going to call me a liar and deny it - why wouldn't he?"

The woman told the court in a victim impact statement Shipwright's two to three minutes of violence and gaslighting tactics left her "terrified, shocked and disorientated".

"I knew he was going to call me a liar and deny it - why wouldn't he?"

She said she suffers flashbacks, hot sweats and panic attacks, adding: "I'm just sad."

Mitigating, Mr Somerville said Shipwright was "helping others while inside" having spent five months on remand and had been offered a job with his previous employer when released from custody.

Handing down a five-year restraining order, Judge Simon Taylor KC told Shipwright he has "extremely concerning traits".

The judge highlighted his victim's "slight build" compared to Shipwright's own stocky physique.

He said: "You blamed her. You said, 'I didn't do this, you did, you did it to yourself.'

"Whether this was an attempt of gaslighting or you wanted her to know who was in charge, I conclude this was you trying to dominate your victim."