A young woman feared for her life when her boyfriend turned violent after a night out, a court heard.
Daniel Dale’s terrified ex-partner said since the attack on her: “I think he could have killed me.”
Dale, 24, drank “two pints and 10 Jägerbombs”, then more, before he dragged his screaming girlfriend across her street, punching her repeatedly and fracturing her cheekbone.
He had never been in any trouble before and went to prison still struggling to come to terms with his violence.
He sat with his head bowed in the dock throughout his sentencing hearing at Teesside Crown Court today.
He dragged his partner out of a taxi after she said she did not want to go home with him in the early hours of November 9 last year.
Prosecutor Jenny Haigh said the woman ran to ask for help but Dale followed her laughing and pushed her to the back “with great force”.
He dragged her across the road to their home and punched her at least twice.
She said the victim grabbed a fence to avoid going inside with him, screaming: “Will somebody please come and help me?”
He dragged her inside and locked the door. When she rang 999 he took the phone and threw it across the room.
On seeing the bleeding victim’s injuries, he panicked, apologised, knelt and put his head on her lap before the police arrived.
She was taken to hospital with facial bruising and swelling, a broken tooth and an undisplaced fracture to the right cheekbone.
She later told in a statement how the attack “showed a side to Daniel that has left me in constant fear”.
It left her shaken and scared, and loss of sensation to her mouth was a daily reminder of it.
She said: “I feared for my life during the incident and if I had not managed to get the phone to call police I do not know how this incident would have ended.”
She added she felt unsafe and let down when Dale’s bail conditions were changed, allowing him to live on her street.
She said she was not consulted or officially informed about this by the courts or police, and had thought he was barred from her road.
The couple have two children but their relationship is now over, the court heard.
She said he became volatile and aggressive when drunk. There had been no previous police call-outs but he had smashed things during an argument.
Dale, of College Road, Thorntree, Middlesbrough, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm, his first conviction.
Andrew Turton, defending, said: “He cannot comprehend and still cannot to this day understand how or why he did what he did on that evening.
“Both were in drink and clearly Daniel Dale is a young man with no propensity to violence.
“A young man who doesn’t normally drink heavily drank heavily on that night and misjudged the amount of alcohol that he could take.”
He said Dale had a poor memory of events and found pictures of the injuries “absolutely shocking” and had lost his job, home and relationship.
Mr Turton said Dale showed genuine remorse and acted out of character as references said he was a loving, caring and honest man.
He added: “He doesn’t condone violence, doesn’t excuse it, and simply falls on the mercy of the court.”
The judge, Recorder Anil Murray, said Dale was otherwise hard-working and honest, helped young people by starting a football team and did charity work, but his “significant loss of temper” terrified its victim.
He jailed Dale for eight months and gave him an indefinite restraining order banning him from contacting his ex or going to her home or workplace.
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