A woman who was sleeping in her bed after a night out with friends was woken by her boyfriend battering her.

Ben Murphy’s victim suffered a raft of injuries during the brutal assault, including a broken nose, punctured kidney and fractures to both her cheekbone and eye socket.

Preston Crown Court heard how the woman had been out with friends before she returned to the Blackburn home that she shared with Murphy and going to bed.

Prosecutor Hugh Barton explained that the pair had shared a somewhat ‘toxic’ on-and-off relationship and that there had been ‘some unpleasantness’ from the defendant towards the victim about the fact she was going out that night.

He said: “The photos in this case speak for themselves. This lady took quite a battering at the hands of this defendant.”

It later transpired that the woman would need surgery to fix her broken nose and that she had been left struggling to walk due to the pain she was experiencing in the weeks after the attack.

Murphy was later arrested and answered no comment in police interview, before pleading guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm once the case had progressed to court.

Mr Barton added: “This was a prolonged and persistent assault – this lady was asleep in her bed at night and was attacked by this defendant.”

Murphy, who was sentenced without representation due to the ongoing barrister strikes, told Judge Simon Medland QC that he had ‘learnt his lesson’ and that he no longer had any contact with the victim.

He told the Judge that before the incident he had worked for five years in a mental health team and that he would be looking to get back into employment once the court proceedings had ended.

Explaining his decision suspend an 18-month prison sentence and to impose an alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement for 120 days, Judge Medland QC said: “The author of the pre-sentence report has recommended that the court ought to consider an alcohol monitoring requirement which is effectively a tag which monitors your sweat, so it prevents you from drinking alcohol for a period of time.

“The purpose of that being that if you are not actually an alcoholic and just a heavy drinker, this is a very good way of stopping you from drinking. If you drink at all that is picked up in the sweat of your skin and reported to the authorities.”

Suspending the 18-month sentence for two years, Judge Medland added: “If you abide by the regulations and do what you should do, get yourself a job and lead a sensible straightforward life, this is the last you’ll ever hear of this. If you don’t, I’ll lock you up.”

A five-year restraining order was also imposed.