A MAN has been jailed after repeatedly attacking his partner and destroying her vibrator and phone in a drunken rage.

In a series of rows, Kieran Heathcote assaulted her, on one occasion kicking her and chipping a tooth.

After he admitted causing actual bodily harm, three assaults and criminal damage, Judge John Edwards jailed him for nine months.

Sentencing him at Bolton Crown Court, the judge said: "You are right to be disgusted with yourself.

"Your display of intemperance and controlling behaviour demeans her and demeans you."

Thomas Sherrington, prosecuting, told the court how, on January 30 last year Heathcote and his partner were out in Bolton when he got angry about a text message she received from a neighbour.

"The argument escalated and he grabbed her jaw and dug his fingers in," said Mr Sherrington.

Then, two months later, she was at home when he again became angry about a text message on her phone.

"He grabbed the phone and then bent it over his knee and snapped it," said Mr Sherrington.

The victim went to get a shower.

"When she returned she found that her vibrator had been snapped in her bedside drawer. The defendant made a comment about it being used previously while he was at work," said Mr Sherrington.

On March 15 Heathcote again attacked his partner after refusing her request to leave. He threw a television remote control at her and grabbed her jaw again.

And the following day he turned up again at her home with two bottles of wine and a row broke out when he took her keys, wanting to go and get more drink, and she tried to stop him.

"He threw her against against a wall. He then stood over her, grabbed her jaw, called her names and hit her with a Timberland boot," said Mr Sherrington.

The victim's mother, who was at a house across the road, kicked the door down to help her.

On April 17 another argument ensued after the couple returned from playing bingo.

"He dragged her out of the house by her hair and when she screamed for help, he kicked her," said Mr Sherrington, who added that the woman suffered a chipped tooth, cuts and bruises.

Heathcote, aged 32, pleaded guilty to the offences on the day of his trial and Nicholas Ross, defending, stressed that he had spared his victim having to give evidence.

Mr Ross added that Heathcote, a father-of-one, of Firwood Avenue, Farnworth, had been drinking when he committed the offences but is determined to change his behaviour.

"Historically he has used alcohol as a drug. He is profoundly remorseful and disgusted at himself, as so he should be," he said, adding that Heathcote, who worked for maintenance company Miller's Vanguard, had a high prospect of being rehabilitated.

But Judge Edwards told Heathcote that he must serve an immediate prison sentence.

"The use of violence to exert power and submission is totally unacceptable in a relationship based on trust and security," he said.

"The fact that drink was a factor is no excuse at all and, in fact, exacerbates the offence."