A pregnant mum was attacked in her own home by a violent ex-partner.
Stephen Frail, 35, called at the home of the victim, his former partner, at around 8.30pm on October 28, 2020.
Liverpool Crown Court was told Frail and his victim had been seeing each other casually since November 2019 and the victim was five months pregnant at the time of the attack.
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Ken Grant, prosecuting, told the court : "He entered into the hallway and kept asking her if they could get back together in a relationship.
"She later reported to the police that during this he was flicking a cigarette lighter on and off close to her face and at that point she became scared.
"She began to back away and told him she was scared of being in the property with him."
Mr Grant added: "He said: ‘I am dying to smash your head in'."
She asked Frail to leave and took hold of his coat in an attempt to escort him out, but this led to him putting both his hands on her chest and forcibly pushing her causing her to fall to the ground.
As Frail pushed her to the floor, she clutched her stomach to protect her unborn child because she was terrified of him.
The victim told police: “I fell on my bum and then on my back. This made me wet myself as he scares the life out of me."
Mr Grant told the court : "He sat down in a chair in the living room and while she was still sitting on the floor, the defendant said, ‘Put your hands on me I dare you’.
“She noticed he had a flat key protruding between his knuckles like a make-shift knuckle duster. She was terrified he was going to hit her but she managed to move away and made contact with her parents and the defendant made off.
“As he was leaving he was heard to say, ‘I’ll get the boys to come round here.’ The police attended in short order and he was arrested."
When interviewed Frail claimed he had acted in self-defence.
The court was told he has five previous convictions for nine offences including common assault on a woman in August 2013 and breaching a non-molestation order in April 2016 for which he was sentenced to eight weeks imprisonment.
As well as battery and drug offences he was jailed for 18 months for three assaults and a common assault, all against women, in August 2016.
The court heard Frail had previously been convicted of kicking, strangling and spitting at a partner and later the same month punching another partner in the face and hitting her leg with a stool.
Frail, of Simonswood Lane, Northwood, Kirkby, pleaded guilty to common assault.
His lawyer urged the judge not to jail him again and give him “one final chance” so he could continue working with the probation service.
But Judge David Swinnerton told the 35-year-old: “You have been to prison before and you are not learning your lesson.
“If you behave in this disgusting way towards women you will simply end up going to prison time and time again.
"You are a threat to people in a relationship with you.
“You completed a programme of ‘Building Better Relationships’ in 2017 and plainly you did not learn much from it'.”
He said that in the latest offence he stepped into the victim’s home uninvited.
He continued: ”You knew she was five months pregnant and you demanded to see the scan pictures and asked if you could get back together but then began flicking a lighter in her face.”
The judge pointed out that the maximum sentence for the offence is six months and told him: “I find there are no realistic prospects of rehabilitation. You are not facing up to what you are like and what you are capable of doing.”
He jailed him for five months and imposed a 10 year restraining order to keep away from his victim.
Lloyd Morgan, defending, said Frail had pleaded guilty which avoided his vulnerable victim from having to come to court. He had not committed any violent offences since 2016, he added.
He has been engaging with the probation service as part of a suspended prison sentence that had been hanging over him and had made good progress.
Mr Morgan added: “He wants to move forward and make sure he doesn’t commit more offences."
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