A MAN who bit his girlfriend in the face in an alcohol-fuelled attack after they had been to a funeral has been jailed.

Joshua Edwards, 41, from Newport, who has a history of domestic violence, assaulted his then-partner last month, the city’s crown court was told.

He bit her cheek after they had returned home from a memorial service.

The defendant, of Maesglas Close, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm on February 5.

The court was told how Edwards, who was represented by Jeffrey Jones, suffers from a "lack of memory" and had endured “disturbing childhood experiences”.

MORE NEWS

His barrister said his client’s attack on his girlfriend had been “short-lived” and his remorse was “genuine”.

A probation officer assessed the defendant as posing a “high risk of causing serious harm to others, particularly to intimate partners”.

The judge, Recorder Dyfed Llion Thomas, told Edwards: “You assaulted your then-partner – you bit her to the face.

“Biting is a particularly pernicious way of assaulting anybody and you did it to your partner, someone at the time you professed to love and you were in a relationship with her.

“This occurred in the early hours of the morning when she called the police and a commotion could be heard.

“It was quite clear that you had been drinking and were under the influence of alcohol.”

Recorder Thomas said the defendant initially made “futile denials” in his police interview before “expressing some remorse”.

Edwards, he added, had previous convictions for assaulting police officers, pushing a partner, being drunk and disorderly, battery against his father and possession of offensive weapons and blades.

The judge said: “You are a man who, when it would seem in drink, can use violence within the domestic or the family setting.”

He added: “A weapon was certainly used by way of your teeth.”

Edwards was jailed for 10 months and ordered to pay a £156 victim surcharge after his release from prison.