ONE of the UK's worst domestic abusers is back behind bars for throwing a Lucozade bottle at his girlfriend when she told him off for throwing litter.

Craig Thomas, 42, from Newport had just been released from 10 ten years in prison for an horrific campaign of abuse against his ex when he lost his temper with his new partner.

Prosecutor Mike Curry told Cardiff Magistrates’ Court: "She was driving when he tore the wrapper off a bottle of Lucozade and threw it out the car window.

“The victim made a comment about it and he threw the plastic bottle into her face.

"It caused swelling and bruising to her cheek and she had to stop at a shop to get an ice pack for it."

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The court was shown pictures of her face with a black eye and swelling to her cheek.

Thomas, who is 6ft 2in tall and weighs 18 stone, was due to stand trial for causing actual bodily harm and a further charge of controlling and coercive behaviour.

But he changed his plea to guilty and was sent to prison for nine months.

Thomas was jailed for 10 years in 2013 for attacking girlfriend with hammers, stabbing her in the back, making her sleep naked standing up, and even forcing her to eat photographs and jewellery of dead loved ones.

He was released in 2018 after serving half his sentence but was taken into custody after he formed a relationship with his new girlfriend and there were fears for her safety.

Thomas was released in June and went to stay with her.

The first four weeks of their resumed relationship went smoothly, the court heard, but she was driving in Nantymoel, Bridgend, on September 6 when he threw the Lucozade bottle at her.

After he was remanded in custody she wrote to him in Cardiff Prison saying: “You have shown me the side of you that you had promised I would never see again.

“I know that you can be a kind, gentle and loving man. I prayed that the person you were for the first four weeks that you were here was the man I was going to marry.”

Thomas 'controlled' her between July 10 and September 10 and the court heard there was video footage of Thomas crouched over her in an intimidating way.

Vaughan Britton, mitigating, said: “He lost his temper. It’s an empty Lucozade bottle but it has caused injury and it’s something he should never have done.

“He is recognising the link between mental health problems and the impact it can have on his behaviour in relationships.”

Mr Britton said Thomas had OCD and since he has been in prison he had been potentially diagnosed with adult ADHD.

Thomas, of no fixed abode, blamed his history of violence as being the result of an injury that left in a coma when he was knocked off a bicycle as a teenager.

But District Judge Stephen Harmes said: “I would have thought that if his brain injury had any impact on him, that would have been explored 10 years ago when he was sentenced to grievous bodily harm.”

Thomas was jailed for six months for controlling behaviour and three months for causing actual bodily harm.

The sentences are to run consecutively but he could be freed in January after serving more than half his sentence because he was remanded in custody.

Thomas made the subject of a 10-year restraining order not to contact the woman.