A man who once beat a seven-year-old girl and her dad has left his girlfriend in hospital with "horrific" injuries after a sickening attack.
Christopher Balmer, of St Helens Road, Leigh, has been jailed after leaving his partner with a bleed on the brain.
Balmer left his victim fearing for her life during the attack on May 8 last year, Bolton Crown Court heard.
The woman had to spend two nights in hospital following the vicious assault, the Manchester Evening News reports.
Her two children were in the house at the time of the attack and her teenage son discovered her with a burst lip and a black eye, the court heard.
Prosecution barrister Gavin Howie said the couple had recently reconciled following the breakdown of their relationship in January 2020.
The pair had been drinking in the woman’s bedroom but after Balmer, 33, accused the victim of "seeing someone else", she told him she was going downstairs to avoid an argument.
As she stood up to leave, Balmer knocked her to the floor and started punching her repeatedly, the court heard.
At one point he paused for a short while and walked away before coming back and carrying on with the beating.
The victim said she cannot recall whether she lost consciousness but said that the next thing she remembered was Balmer being gone.
When her son found her, he took photos and sent them to his grandma, who in turn called the police.
The woman spent two days in hospital, where she was diagnosed with a small bleed on the left side of her brain.
She could not open her left eye for weeks and it took even longer for her sight to return.
In a victim personal statement, the woman said she was "disgusted" with how she'd been treated and that she "thought she was going to die" during the attack.
She went on to say that the injuries made her young daughter scared of her.
"My world has been turned upside down by the events of that night," the woman added.
"I've been through hell and back."
Balmer pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm.
Mr Howie told the court that Balmer had 18 previous convictions. One of those was in 2017, when he left a seven-year-old girl with a split lip and punched her dad in the face while he lay on the ground with a broken leg.
Defending, Paul Treble said: "In his own words, this was an horrendous assault and he feels dreadful about it."
Mr Treble told the court that Balmer suffered with anxiety and depression, which had been exacerbated due to his father's ill health.
"He was at his lowest ebb," Mr Treble added.
A letter from Balmer's mother was read out by Mr Treble, in which she said that he is getting a counsellor for his mental health issues and is on medication.
He then read a reference from his employer, in which Balmer was described as a "decent family man" and an "asset to the business".
The judge, Recorder Alexandra Simmonds drew attention to the fact that a member of court staff has been reduced to tears because of the way Balmer spoke to her prior to the hearing.
Sentencing him to 32 months imprisonment, Recorder Simmonds said: "Her injuries can only be described as horrific. They must have been extremely painful.
"She lost her confidence, she's been unable to work, her young daughter wouldn't come near her because she thought she looked like a monster.
"Your actions that night were deliberate and gratuitous.
"This assault was in [her] home - a place where she should have felt safe and her children were in the house, albeit they didn't actually witness the assault."
