A JEALOUS thug repeatedly assaulted his girlfriend, leaving her battered and bruised, after accusing her of flirting with one of his friends.

Tyler Tunnah stormed out of Chloe Lysaght's home but returned a short time later, telling her: "I've only come back to hurt you."

And just days later he assaulted her again after becoming unahppy at her plans to go to the supermarket. He punched her, knocking her head against a fence and causing her to fall to the ground.

Sentencing him to 16 months in a young offenders' institution, Judge Tina Landale told 19-year-old Tunnah he had behaved "appallingly".

"Why you thought you could control her I do not know," she said.

"You perceived she was flirting with one of your friends and you decided you would punish her for that.

"Even if she was flirting, that is her right. She can behave exactly as she chooses in her own home. She wasn't your property, you couldn't control her and you had absolutely no right to treat her as you did."

One of the brusies on Miss Lysaghts leg

One of the brusies on Miss Lysaght's leg

Bolton Crown Court heard how Tunnah, of Monks Lane, Breightmet, and Miss Lysaght has been in a relationship for three months when he first attacked her on January 30 this year.

Helen Longworth, prosecuting, told how Tunnah waited a day after after accusing her of flirting before getting a rusty pole he had picked up from a construction site and using it to smash her mobile phone, telling her, "Don't think you're getting away with cheating".

He then swung the bar at her, hitting her legs with it and punching her forehead.

Two days later he attacked her again and, when arrested, he had cannabis on him. Tunnah pleaded guilty to two counts of causing actual bodily harm, possessing cannabis, criminal damage and destroying a pillow in a police cell.

Tyler Tunnah

Tyler Tunnah

Andrew Costello, defending, said Tunnah's behaviour had been learned after growing up in an abusive household and added that he is remorseful.

But Judge Landale told the defendant: "This was a persistent and sustained attack on a young woman — you, out of control and armed with a vicious-looking weapon.

"It's clear to me you continue to blame the victim. I do not accept you are remorseful. You have no insight into the impact of your offences on that young woman."