DETECTIVES say the "net is closing" on a violent thug who hit his girlfriend in the face with a telephone in a jealous rage.

Dingani Mlotshwa, aged 32, is wanted by police for a violent attack in Bolton which left his girlfriend blind in one eye and struggling to see through the other.

Police in Bolton are following up more than 10 new leads after a high-profile television appeal on the BBC's Crimewatch last month.

Working with other police forces and law enforcement agencies across the country, they now believe they have tracked Mlotshwa to a town in the South of England.

Detective Constable Liz Hopkinson, of Bolton CID, said: "We are getting there. The net is closing."

DC Hopkinson appeared alongside Detective Chief Inspector George Fawcett Crimewatch to appeal for the public's help in tracking down Mlotshwa in December. She said: "We know he is not in Bolton and we think we have tracked him down to a location in the South.

"A lot of agencies have come together to trace this man and we are determined to bring him to justice."

The victim, who is from Bolton but has not been named, met Mlotshwa at a party in Leeds in December, 2004, while he was working in Hull packing medical supplies.

As the relationship grew, the failed asylum seeker from Zimbabwe moved into her Bolton home.

But he became increasingly jealous and abusive and, after wrongly accusing her of cheating on him, he punched her, giving her a black eye.

The relationship broke down and he moved out.

But on Saturday, April 16, 2005, he let himself into the house at 7am hoping to catch the woman with another man.

There was no-one else there, but an argument followed and the victim called 999.

Mlotshwa grabbed the phone and repeatedly hit her in the face with it and with his fists.

He then kicked her repeatedly before leaving.

She was taken to hospital and had 31 stitches to her face. She also needed reconstructive surgery and is still having operations in the hope of bringing back her sight.