A cowardly woman beater broke a mug across his girlfriend's face slashing her cheek wide open.
Paul Cave, 46, headbutted and punched a wall in a drunken rage at his partner's flat in Southport.
When she tried to calm him down, Cave inflicted a 5cm long, 2.5cm deep wound, which has left a permanent scar.
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But rather than rush to her aid or call an ambulance, he fled the woman's home, leaving her covered in blood with the wound to her cheek gaping open.
Cave, from Liverpool but of no fixed address, was due to be sentenced over the brutal attack at Liverpool Crown Court this morning.
However, the court heard the woman was unable to sign off a victim statement because she is in hospital after taking an overdose.
Cave and his victim, who the ECHO has chosen not to name, had been in a relationship for around two years prior to the attack last October.
Mr Grant said: "The prosecution characterise the relationship as being one that was violent, that violence being meted out by this defendant to the complainant."
He said the couple were drinking together at her flat on the evening of Sunday, October 25, but Cave became "upset" and violent in the early hours of Monday, October 26.
Mr Grant said after Cave punched and headbutted a wall "in temper" and his partner tried to calm him down, he "called her a slut and broke a mug across her face, causing a 5cm long laceration to her cheek, across the zygomatic bone".
The prosecutor said: "At this the defendant panicked and he left the flat, running out the premises."
The victim called an ambulance and her dad, the police were contacted, and she was taken to hospital at around 1am.
Mr Grant said she was also treated for two "superficial" 1cm wounds to her right eyebrow and received stitches for the "deep wound" to her cheek.
When arrested and interviewed later that day, Cave accepted he had been drinking at his victim's home the night before.
However, he claimed he had left after an argument with his partner and denied causing any injury to her.
Cave told police: "Obviously she has fell over and done it - she got a cast on her leg."
He was released on bail with a condition not to contact the victim, but the next day, while still in hospital, she received a phone call from his mum.
Mr Grant said Cave's mum asked the woman to come to her home, which she did, but Cave was there, and persuaded her to stay the night with him.
The following day they went to the home of Ian Spencer, a friend of Cave's brother, who let them stay over, but police were called to an incident.
Cave was again arrested and interviewed, when he denied any wrongdoing.
He denied wounding with intent at a hearing last November, was remanded in custody and set to stand trial last month.
But he then admitted the lesser offence of wounding, which was accepted by the Crown.
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Cave has 22 previous convictions for 50 offences, dating back to 1989, including violence and dishonesty.
In November 2018 he received a suspended prison sentence for assault causing actual bodily harm against another ex-girlfriend.
He breached that by committing a common assault against a female friend of his latest victim, at that woman's home, in July 2019.
Judge Garrett Byrne said: "He picked up an axe and smashed the TV."
Claire Jones, defending, said she represented Cave in that case, which involved criminal damage before his partner's friend intervened verbally and he assaulted her.
He was jailed for nine months over that incident in November 2019, when one month of his suspended sentence was activated.
Mr Grant told the court his girlfriend had drafted a victim personal statement but was "incapacitated at the moment having taken an overdose of prescription medication".
He explained police said she was in an intensive care unit and couldn't sign the document, or say whether she wanted an application for a restraining order.
Judge Byrne said he was "troubled" by this and adjourned the case until July 30, so the woman could have the opportunity to provide the information.
The judge, who reserved the case to himself and remanded Cave in custody, said: "It has to be obviously an immediate term of imprisonment."
If you have been affected by any issues mentioned in this article, you can contact the Domestic Violence Helpline for free on 0808 2000 247 or any of the following organisations:
People can also call Merseyside Police on 101 or, if they are in immediate danger, call 999.
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