A THUG who subjected his girlfriend to a sustained attack during a night out in Oxford was jailed by magistrates.

Lee Atkinson, of The Grove, Abingdon, set upon Nina Mcgowan while the pair were on a date in Oxford on July 25.

Such was the ferocity of the attack that a member of the public hit the 29-year-old with a bike lock to try to stop him.

Atkinson, who was serving a suspended sentence for assaulting a police officer when he attacked Miss Mcgowan, was jailed yesterday for 20 weeks.

Prosecutor Susan Clegg told magistrates: “It is a sustained assault involving kicking and punching with people physically separating them.”

The court was shown CCTV footage of the late night assault and told of a further charge of criminal damage to which Atkinson had also pleaded guilty.

Laura Parker, defending, said her client was mortified by his actions and battled with self harm.

“Breaking the window of the cell in the police station was to get some glass to harm himself,” she explained.

Sentencing Atkinson, chairman of the magistrates Christopher Bates said: “It was a prolonged assault with many punches and kicks. It was domestic related and you were on a suspended prison sentence at the time of the act.

“A member of the public had to actively intervene when you were assaulting Miss Mcgowan.”

He added: “We are going to activate what remains of the prison sentence and we are going to activate three weeks in custody for that. For the criminal assault you will receive 17 weeks in custody and they are going to run consecutively, so that makes 20 weeks.

“For the charge of criminal damage there will be no separate penalty.”