AN obsessive and controlling man has been jailed for 30 months after a vicious assault on his partner.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard the assaults on the woman, who Benjamin Pearson met on social media app Snapchat, arose after he smashed her mobile telephone after being “unhappy” with what he found on it.

It was the second phone of hers he had smashed in a week.

Judge Mary Loram QC said: “The relationship only lasted five months, yet within that short time you became obsessive about her and controlling of her behaviour.

“You would criticise and dominate her verbally.

“That sadly escalated into violence, starting with hitting her to the face.

“Despite your tears on that occasion the violence continued, leaving her with bruises all over her body.

“You pulled her hair, pinched her, shoved her and grabbed her around the throat.

“Like many controlling men, you concerned yourself with what was on her phone.”

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The court heard the victim tried to hide in a wardrobe and a bath during the incident on April 28 last year, but that after finding her, he pinned her against a wall, shoved her and grabbed her hair.

“You were, as she says ‘like a madman’,” added Judge Loram.

“Of real concern, you pressed your body against hers and commented she would ‘go to sleep’. That is analogous with asphyxiation or strangulation.”

Pearson drove the victim to work in Clacton the following day, but she took his keys after the manner of his driving “frightened” her.

He then assaulted her again, but that incident was witnessed by a woman who called the police.

Adam Budworth, mitigating, said Pearson suffers from a number of mental health issues.

“This was a toxic relationship – the two of them should never have got together,” he said.

Pearson, 33, of Penfold Road, Clacton, admitted actual bodily harm, assault by beating and two charges of criminal damage.

He was sentenced to 30 months in prison for actual bodily harm along with a concurrent three month sentence for assault by beating and two concurrent one month sentences for the criminal damage charges.

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