A jealous ex-boyfriend violently imprisoned a woman for six hours and later threatened to have her face slashed if she pressed charges.
Jamie Place trapped his former partner in her own home after he couldn't accept that their relationship was over after five months.
The 27-year-old dogged his victim repeatedly, and was once found lying under the covers of her bed, in the dark, after she got home from work in the middle of the night, last October.
The woman, in her 20s, ran downstairs in the Kirkby home and bolted the front door, but Place chased her and restrained her, leaving her "absolutely terrified" and "physically shaking," Liverpool Crown Court heard.
The thug demanded the keys, locked it from within, and then started analysing her mobile phone contacts, deleting those of her male friends, wrongly accusing her of having an affair with one of them.
The woman, who held down two jobs as a bar worker by night and a carer by day, felt like "a prisoner in her own home," prosecutor Henry Riding said.
Place explained she would not be going to her care worker post that day, telling her to phone in sick, before he flew into a rage and threw a cup at a wall, which smashed.
He told the woman he "wanted to smash her head in," as she cowered on the floor.
The victim ran out into the rear garden, but couldn't escape as there was glass on the walls and a padlocked gate, so Place frogmarched her back inside, putting his hand on her face and grabbing her neck.
He then upped his violence, the court heard, punching her to her head, back and body and then pushed her up the stairs and into the bedroom.
The care worker adopted a crouched and huddled position before he produced a kitchen knife and poked her repeatedly with the blade, causing her "sharp stabs of pain," which left visible injuries.
Place bit her thumb and tried to cut her hair using the knife, but caused a wound to her right hand instead.
The only way she could get him to leave, Mr Riding said, was by telling him she "still loved him", which allowed her to escape to a friend's address and the incident was reported to the police.
The ordeal lasted about six hours, it was added.
The next day, Place was arrested and while in the police custody suite asked to telephone his "sister", but who was actually the victim.
During the call, he claimed he was sorry and asked for her forgiveness, but also asked her to "withdraw" her statement.
There were other calls from Place to her, some people also operating on his behalf.
Six weeks later, there was more witness intimidation, this time more violent, prosecutors said, in mid-December, when he again told her "not to go to court and told her if she didn't he would leave her alone."
Asked to clarify that, Place chillingly told her: "We'll put it this way, I've got nothing to lose.
"I'm capable of anything.
"I'll pay someone to get your face slashed."
Place then began to rant again about the male friend who he falsely claimed she was unfaithful with during their brief relationship.
The 27-year-old, of Upper Parliament Street, admitted offences of false imprisonment, assault causing actual bodily harm and two counts of witness intimidation.
Place's criminal record, it was heard, featured the domestic-violence related battery of an ex-girlfriend, who was 16. This happened in November 2011 when Place was also a teenager.
And he was also convicted of an assault and perverting the course of justice when he punched a friend in Liverpool city centre after drinking in bars, fracturing his cheekbone which needed fixation under general anaesthetic.
Place then sent a series of texts, offering him cash if he would drop the charges, threatening to "get some gypsies to sort him out," if he proceeded with the criminal prosecution.
The relationship between Place and his one-time girlfriend had been "nice" for a period of time before his jealousy, before he had wanted her to quit her job in the city centre bar as it brought her into contact with other men, prosecutors said.
Before the imprisonment, he had confronted the victim just before in McDonalds at 3am, after she had received a series of telephone calls from a withheld number.
Place was jailed for 34 months and a restraining order lasting for 10 years was imposed to protect his victim.
