A MAN branded a "bully and a thug" was jailed for 20 months for giving his partner of seven months a beating in her Gwent home.

The victim, 33-year-old Joanne Suter who lived in the Rassau area of Ebbw Vale, was five feet 10 inches tall and weighed barely seven stone while her attacker, 25-year-old amphetamine addict Christopher Phillips was six foot three and weighed more than 14 stone, said Judge Stephen Hopkins.

Phillips of Bethcar Street, Ebbw Vale, had pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm on the basis that he delivered a single slap to her face and pushed her, but this was not accepted by the prosecution.

Following the hearing of evidence the Judge, sitting at Cardiff crown court, said he was driven to the conclusion that Miss Suter had been "foully abused" by Phillips who on July 10 punched and kicked her and dragged her by her hair with "absolutely no provocation."

When the case began prosecutor Jane Rowley said Miss Suter had written a letter to Phillips while he was on remand in prison saying that she had lied in her statement to the police.

The judge said: "Making a false statement is a serious criminal offence and she might be prosecuted for it."

Miss Suter said the allegations she made in her statements were untrue and she realised she could get into trouble.

She was asked why she lied and she replied: "I was angry and hurt at the time."

She said that Phillips had kicked her but not intentionally.

"I hit him first and he hit me back once," she said.

She told the court that Phillips would offer her drugs and would inject himself in front of her. She didn't like it she said when there were used needles in the house.

She denied that he assaulted her regularly and that she hadn't meant it when she said: "I say that living with him was hell."

It was also untrue, she said, that he strangled her making it difficult for her to breathe and that she thought he was going to drown her in the bath.

Phillips said the relationship had had its ups and downs. Regarding the incident he said he merely slapped and pusher her: "I didn't beat her up, I am not a bully. I know she loves me from the bottom of her heart."

The judge said he found that the punch to the face had "caused her nose to explode with blood."

He said he had rarely seen such a small, petite woman as Miss Suter.

He described Phillips as a "hulking young man" and said he was more than a bully and was also a thug.

Arrest order as hearing is taped

Midway through the hearing it was alleged that a woman sitting in the public gallery of court number 4 had been recording the proceedings on her mobile phone.

The Judge ordered that she be traced and arrested and remanded in custody.