A MAN who attacked his heavily pregnant partner and fractured her cheek – threatening to kill their unborn baby – has been jailed.

Matthew James Russell, 33, of Y Wern in Wrexham, admitted assault and asked for an earlier assault on her to be taken into consideration.

Mold Crown Court was told the police were at Y Wern in Caia Park on an unrelated matter when a neighbour said they should check on Russell’s partner Melanie Booth, describing her as “black and blue”.

They went to the house on the pretext of carrying house-to-house enquiries and saw her face was covered in bruising. She said she had a fight with her boyfriend.

The victim was seven months pregnant and initially she would not make a formal complaint.

But she later gave a statement telling what had happened and detailing earlier incidents, said barrister Paulinus Barnes, prosecuting.

He said that in addition to assaulting her Russell had said “I am going to kill that f…… baby inside you” and “you are not going to leave this flat until I have murdered you”.

Russell was jailed for a year and a five year restraining order was made.

The judge, Mr Recorder Nicholas Gareth Jones, said both assaults were on the same woman, his former partner.

He had made serious threats and she ended up with serious injuries, blackening to her face, black eyes, facial bruising and bruising to her arms and legs.

The earlier common assault which was being taken into consideration involved him holding a knife to her face and punching her.

A prison sentence was inevitable, he said.

It was, he said, a sustained attack on a pregnant woman by a man who had a very bad record.

Mr Barnes said the couple had been in a three year relationship.

When she was assaulted she was pregnant with his child.

The complainant was at his flat in Wrexham that night when his phone rang.

He was asleep, she got up and while she did not answer it she realised that call was from a female.

When he came through she asked him who the woman was, and he told her she had no right to go through his phone.

He became abusive, she said she had not answered the phone but she was punched in the face.

She described it as “a big blow” and she felt blood trickling down her face.

He then threw a tea towel at her and told her to “clean her f…… face”.

The complainant was crying but he attacked her again, punching her, and he said he was going to kill the baby inside her.

She was screaming at him and telling him to stop, her vision was blurred, and it was alleged that he said “You are not leaving this f….. flat until I murder you.”

He later turned up at the door crying and apologising.

Police who were in the area for an unrelated matter saw her injuries and photographed them.

She had extensive bruising to her face, legs and arms.

Interviewed, he gave no comment.

The assault taken into consideration was an incident when both had taken Mamba and he held a knife to her chin and punched her to the right side of the face.

Laura Preston-Hayes, defending, said Russell accepted full responsibility and had expressed remorse.

He did not seek to minimise his actions and was realistic about the kind of sentence he could expect, although she did ask the court to consider whether or not the sentence could be suspended.

“He accepts his actions and wanted to ensure that it will not happen again,” she said.

Russell was a man who could not read or write but he was seeking to better himself and was following educational courses in custody.