A man accused of a brutal, sustained assault on his girlfriend lasting several hours has been jailed.

Russell Bland, 36, beat Victoria Coduri in the early hours of October 12, 2014 at Close Hill Lane, Huddersfield, while in the company of his unnamed brother and a friend of the victim’s – Kathryn Burnham.

Vincent O’Malley, prosecuting, said Kathryn described the 3am assault as emanating from a row about a phone. At one point the defendant taunted her about being “barren.”

He said: “She describes Mr Bland slapping and pulling her around by her hair, ‘ragging’ her. She rushed into the kitchen to get him off her. Victoria was on the floor.

“Blood was in her ears. Her face was bruised and several clumps of her hair had come out.

“Victoria ran upstairs. Mr Bland chased her up there and into the bedroom. He was really ferocious. Victoria was screaming and crying.”

The parties eventually came downstairs where Victoria escaped by climbing through a kitchen window.

She ran to a public phone box where the defendant persisted in his attack before the police arrived.

Bland, of Waterwheel Street, Lockwood, pleaded guilty to the charge at a previous hearing and Kirklees Magistrates’ Court heard he had also pleaded to sending an offensive text to the mother of his three children, Kerry Fitzpatrick, on December 26, 2014.

In addition he pleaded guilty to assaulting Kerry’s new partner Jonathon Maude, the following day at Tesco Express, New Hey Road, Marsh.

Sonia Kidd, in mitigation, said he had “struggled to come to terms with the end of his relationship with Miss Fitzpatrick.

“He understands that what he has done was wrong. He understands the severity of what he has done.”

District Judge Michael Fanning said Bland had a job and had been supporting his children.

But jailing him for 23 weeks he said: “Sometimes the facts of an offence are so grotesque that no other sentence can be justified.

“This was a sustained assault over a period of hours. You only pleaded guilty at the last available opportunity.”

For making the malicious communication Bland was sentenced to seven days to be served concurrently.

The judge said the assault on Maude was aggravated by being carried out in a public place. For that offence he was sentenced to a further 20 weeks to run concurrently.