A BULLYING boyfriend from Kidlington has been jailed for a shocking campaign of abuse, during which he took over his partner's life and banned her from wearing make-up.

Martin Brough subjected his partner, a single mother, to months of brutal assaults which left her with black eyes and bruises around her neck from strangling.

During their relationship, which lasted about a year and ended in January, he forced her to cut herself off from her friends and family and ordered her to wear loose-fitting, frumpish clothing so she would not appeal to other men.

Brough banned her from wearing padded bras and attacked her if she tried to put on make up. He smashed her mobile phones if she tried to use them to alert friends and family.

He made her lend him her car even though he had no licence and insurance and crashed it twice, including a road rage attack at a supermarket filling station, as well as smashing up her home, threatening to stab her and twice throttling her so severely that she almost passed out.

Drug user Brough promised to track her down and harm her if she ever left him even though they had only been together for a few months.

The woman was left feeling 'like a shell of herself' and still suffers from nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety and depression.

Brough, aged 28, now of Oxford Road, Kidlington, denied harassment causing serious fear of violence but was found guilty by magistrates and jailed for four years and two months by Judge Peter Johnson at Exeter Crown Court.

He admitted criminal damage, theft, driving while disqualified and without insurance and was also banned from driving for two years after his release.

He also made a restraining order banning Brough from contacting the woman nor going to her home in Brixham, Devon.

The judge told him:"This was long term physical and emotional abuse. During a relationship of almost a year, you sought to exercise control over her.

"You smashed up her belongings and those of her three-year-old daughter. You seemed oblivious to the presence of that young child when you threatened and assaulted her mother.

"The violence was considerable and sustained and on occasions you tried to throttle her. You sought to isolate her from her family and friends and to control her relationship with her daughter. She was terrified of you."

The victim has now moved away from the area.

Miss Judith Constable, prosecuting, said Brough formed an on-off relationship with his now ex partner n February 2017, which lasted until she called in the police on January 1 this year.

His violent threats started when they split up for the first time a few weeks later and he sent a Whatsapp message saying he would set fire to her car.

Miss Constable said: "There was a significant history of violence towards her and her property in which there was almost a year of extravagant threats and controlling behaviour.

"He was controlling about her clothing. She was not allowed to wear padded bras and if she wore make up he would ask 'who are you trying to impress'. He used psychological blackmail.

"He stopped her three-year-old daughter getting into bed with her and once prevented her from seeing her brother."

Miss Constable said Brough smashed items including a vase and a coffee table when he was angry and threw items including a can of moisturiser at her. He also strangled her so hard that she needed all her strength to get him off and was left with marks on her neck.

He became so angry when she put on lip salve that he attacked her and threw her against a television cabinet, bruising her legs. He threatened to stab her and himself and smashed three mobile phones, one of which he threw out of a window.

He forced her to lend him her car, crashed it, and then did the same thing again when she replaced it.

Brough became so angry when she came across some old friends at the filling station of the Sainsbury store in Newton Abbot that he deliberately rammed their car and got out and tried to attack them.

He also broke the windscreen of her cars twice during temper tantrums.

Even after he was arrested and warned by police not to go back he returned to her home when she was out, stole a bank card, and used it to steal £200 from her account, leaving her penniless.

She made a victim impact statement which said:"I am constantly terrified he will show up. I have nightmares about his physical abuse. I wake up in a sweat and feel sick.

"I am depressed and anxious and a shell of the person I used to be. It is all down to him. I feel petrified. He told me if we ever split up, he would go to extraordinary lengths to find me."

Miss Ceylan Bayram, defending, said Brough's behaviour was in the context of a tempestuous relationship and there has been no new offences since