A LOVER subjected his partner to a string of appalling attacks, leaving her bruised and battered.

In his final assault, Gary Lewis drove into his victim before punching her in the face, following and confronting her as she tried to get away through the streets of Southampton.

Before he was arrested, Lewis raged in a message to her: “If you think about getting me nicked, I will put you in the ground... I will put you in a hole, I promise.”

When he was visited by the police the following day, officers found the 45-year-old had nearly £45,000 worth of homegrown cannabis in two rooms of his house in Hope Road, West End.

Southampton Crown Court heard that Lewis’ behaviour grew worse throughout the couple’s three-and-a-half-year relationship, fuelled by a drug and alcohol problem.

Prosecutor Roderick Blain explained that on a number of occasions Lewis had struck the woman in public, and in another incident he spat in her mouth and dragged her around by the hair.

His reign of abuse was bought to an end after Lewis drove into the victim, although not at speed, as she stood on the kerb. He then punched the woman, leaving her with a black eye and cuts.

After making a getaway, nearby students tried to help the woman, but she then left them after spotting Lewis driving around trying to find her.

In a separate charge, Lewis allowed a drug dealer to use his house to grow cannabis to pay off a £4,000 debt he had.

Mitigating, Paul Fairley, said Lewis’ actions were “appalling” and he was “ashamed of the harm he caused his loved one”.

Lewis pleaded guilty to coercive behaviour and producing a class B drug.

He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment.