A woman beater contacted his ex-girlfriend just two weeks after being ordered to stay away from her.

Declan Batty, 24, was told he should be ‘ashamed’ of his actions after pushing his ex-partner into smashed glass and hitting her in the head with a candle holder.

David Clarke, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said that Batty had already appeared in court after assaulting the woman who he was in a relationship with for about two years.

The court imposed a three-year restraining order banning him from any kind of contact with the woman for three years.

Within just two weeks, Batty contacted the woman and they started meeting up.

On June 6, 2021, the pair had an argument and Batty threw a TV which smashed a mirror.

Batty pushed her into the broken glass, leaving her with a serious cut which needed glueing at the hospital.

In a second assault on December 4, 2022, the woman woke up and looked at Batty’s phone.

When he saw what she was doing, he ‘went mad’.

Mr Clarke said: “He gripped her by the face and pinned her down on the bed.

“She got up and walked around the bed to get away.

“He went on to punch her to the left side of the face. He hit her so hard her vision went blurry.

“She had a cut and swelling.

“She got up and he tried to smash her face against the cabinet.

“She got up again and picked up a candle holder and threw it at him but she missed.

“He picked up the candle holder and hit her to the back of the head.”

Batty then grabbed the woman’s phone, took the driving licence from the back and ripped it up in front of her face.

Police were called and saw the injuries to the woman. Batty was then arrested.

The woman said that she had struggled more with her mental health since the assault and that he would assault her ‘once in every three weeks’.

She also said that she is ‘definitely done’ with the relationship and that she is building trust again with her family and friends.

Mitigating, Adam Brown, said that Batty pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to two counts of assault and one of breaching a restraining order.

Mr Brown added that Batty is just 24 years old, having been 23 at the time and that he had ‘learnt his lesson’.

He said: “There is very little I can say – the behaviour has been quite appalling.

“He has learnt his lesson. He does not want to go back to prison after this sentence.

“The spell in custody has had that short, sharp shock.”

Recorder Paul Hodgkinson told Batty he should be ashamed of his actions and that as an adult he should know better.

Recorder Hodgkinson said: “You are 24 years old. At 24, you have two convictions of beating up women.

“You should feel deeply ashamed of yourself but I am not sure you do.

“To punch the lady you are supposed to have loved squarely in the face, to grab her head and try to smash it into a cabinet and to smash her in the back of the head.

“You are someone who can be described as a woman beater.”

Batty, of Wellington Road, Blackburn, was jailed for two years and one month.

A new restraining order has been imposed banning him from contacting the woman in any way for five years.