A woman has told how she finally decided to leave her abusive partner after her son saw her horrific injuries as she lay in a hospital bed.

The victim, who the Examiner has chosen not to name, had been beaten by Darren Foster repeatedly during their four-and-a-half-year relationship.

She feared for her life as he stamped on her chest and stomach during his latest booze-fuelled attack in January this year, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Left with a broken ankle, cuts and bruising, she spent 10 days in hospital and says it was her son’s reaction that made her want to never see Foster again.

Darren Foster, of Quarmby, who was jailed for two years and seven months at Leeds Crown Court for attacking his partner

On the day the case was listed for trial, Foster pleaded not guilty to one count of grievous bodily harm with intent, but guilty to the lesser charge of wounding.

His victim, who had shown up to court expecting to give evidence in the trial, spoke to the Examiner after he was jailed.

She said: “His face - he looked like ‘I’m going to murder you.’

“He was stamping on my stomach that hard that I thought it was going to explode.

“I kept shouting ‘stop, stop’ and I know I passed out.

“When I went to hospital and saw my son, there were tears in his eyes and my family seeing me in that state. If it wasn’t for my family, I don’t know what I’d have done.

“I just don’t ever want to meet anybody like him again and I hope other women out there [know] - if I can do it, they can.”

Stock pic: Leeds Combined Courts, Leeds Crown Court.

Foster has four previous convictions for assaulting her, including once when they went away to Scarborough and she woke up in the middle of the night to him punching her repeatedly in the face, and has served time in prison as a result.

And the brazen 47-year-old launched the attack during an argument about taxi money that she had lent him to get to one of his probation appointments.

The court heard Foster, of Hebden Court in Quarmby, invited her over to his flat on January 16 this year and he was anxious ahead of his latest appointment so they both started drinking.

She said the attack, which left her with a broken ankle, cuts and bruising, felt like it went on ‘forever’ and she has received treatment for the nightmares she suffers as a result.

Bashir Ahmed, prosecuting, said: “While she has suffered violence at the hands of the defendant in the past, on this occasion she thought she was going to die.”

The court heard how Foster waited until medical reports were produced to admit to his offending.

Giles Grant, mitigating, said his client’s father was murdered when he was 19 and he had to identify the body and he has self-medicated since.

He also said that his brother’s death in 2014 was a trigger and that’s when he started abusing the woman.

Mr Grant said Foster has been taking an alcohol treatment course in prison and plans to move out of the area.

Judge Neil Clark sentenced Foster to two years and seven months’ imprisonment and made him the subject of a 15-year restraining order, banning him from entering the Dalton area.

He did not react as he was sentenced.