A man has been jailed for just under two years after admitting he assaulted his former girlfriend.

James Tarron Keggin pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm in June.

Prosecutor Roger Cain told the Court of General Gaol Delivery that on December 28 at 9.30pm, a 999 call was received from a distressed woman but the call was then dropped.

Police traced the call to an address where they found the 25-year-old and his former girlfriend.

She told officers that the couple had been drinking whisky and Coke but that he had ’kicked off’ when she told him to stop drinking in the evening.

Mr Cain said Keggin ’threw her to the floor and gripped her around the throat’ during this he was said to have dug his nails into her throat.

Having got off the victim, she locked herself in the bathroom but Keggin kicked the door open and smashed the whisky bottle. He then began to throw glass at her and at one point held the bottle to her head.

His former girlfriend said she had ’feared for her life’ during this. Keggin then straddled her and began to punch her in the face and head while she was ’screaming for help’.

She calmed him down and he went to look for his tobacco. However when he couldn’t find it, he brought a mug and ’smashed it over her head’, he also had thrown her around the room.

It was just after that when officers arrived and Keggin opened the door to them, he was subsequently arrested.

Keggin gave no reply to caution and during police interview said he had ’no memory’ of the assault but said ’I can’t say it’s not impossible’.

His ex-girlfriend, who is a teenager, suffered bruising to her neck, eyes, arms and body, cuts to her face and neck, and a 9.2cm cut to her scalp, although officers were not able to ascertain exactly how this cut occurred.

Defence advocate Louise Cooil said it had been a ’difficult road’ for Keggin to accept what he had done but that his ’remorse is genuine’ and he would seeking support for his behaviour after a prison sentence.

She added he was ’perhaps an immature individual’ who has had ’not the best experience of intimate relationships’ but that he ’doesn’t seek to make excuses’.

In sentencing, Deemster Graeme Cook said Keggin was ’responsible for an appalling assault’ and said it was ’fortunate’ that police were able to trace her phone.

Deemster Cook said: ’She must have been absolutely terrified.’ He added that it was an ’unprovoked sustained assault’ which had left his ex-girlfriend fearing for her life.

He sentenced Keggin, who lives in North Shore Road, Ramsey, to 21 months in prison.

After sentencing, Deemster Cook instructed Mr Cain to report the Attorney General that he is disappointed that, unlike in England and Wales, he is unable to place Keggin under a restraining order to prevent him contacting his victim after prison.

He said that the powers could be extended in the upcoming Justice Reform Bill and said it was ’clearly appropriate to have restraining orders available to me’ in cases such as this.