A man twice headbutted his girlfriend so hard that she thought he was going to kill her after she found flirty phone messages sent to another woman.

Aled Davies assaulted his partner of three years at their home in Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain during the early hours of Saturday, December 23 after she angrily confronted him over suspicions he had been cheating.

At Welshpool Magistrates' Court, the 26-year-old was sentenced after pleading guilty to the offence of assaulting the woman and causing her actual bodily harm (ABH) which left her with a damaged nose.

Prosecutor Helen Tench said the violence happened at 1am after the defendant returned home drunk following his work's Christmas do in Newtown. Davies' girlfriend accused him of being unfaithful before he headbutted her in the face causing her to fall and hit her head.

With her face now covered in blood, the woman asked, "why are you doing this?" before he again headbutted her.

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Mrs Tench said: "At one point she was gasping for air, and she thought he was going to kill her." She added that Davies was "emotionless and in a trance-like state" but later cried.

The woman said in a statement read out in court that she suffers from blurred vision and frequent headaches from her injuries and has been left too scared to leave the house in fear that something might happen.

After his arrest, Davies, of Llangadfan, near Llanfair Caereinion, admitted he was "seven out of 10 drunk" when his girlfriend "kicked off" over his phone. He told officers that he headbutted her in self-defence after she headbutted him first, which the Crown did not accept.

Asked how she got the bruises and scratches, he told police that she is clumsy and walks into door frames and has an iron deficiency and bruises easily.

Robert Hanratty, mitigating for Davies, said: "He admitted headbutting in self-defence. It has always been his case that the victim found a message on his phone, and she started swearing and screaming.

"His case is she headbutted him first but it’s not to excuse his behaviour. It was not a relationship without its problems.

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"It was entirely out of character. He’s very well thought of in the community. He’s very hard-working.

"He has taken responsibility for the injuries that this young lady sustained. It’s clearly not how he wanted the relationship to have ended in this way. He accepts the relationship is over.

"A couple of references describe him as very kind, gentle and polite and that is certainly his demeanour when I’ve engaged with him.

"He’d been drinking that evening but that is no excuse for the unpleasant injuries sustained in this incident. He accepts responsibility for his actions."

Chair of the magistrates' bench Cynthia McVey noted that Davies' early guilty plea and lack of convictions before passing sentence for ABH.

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"It’s a very upsetting one in a domestic setting," she said. "You would have heard that it was so serious a custodial sentence could have been imposed."

Davies was given a two-year community order which means he must complete 160 hours of unpaid work, 15 rehabilitation requirement days and take a Building Better Relationships programme.

He must pay £250 compensation to his ex-girlfriend for damaging her nose, £85 court costs and a £114 victim surcharge.

The magistrates also imposed a two-year restraining order where Davies must not approach, contact, or attend his former partner's address.

"We want you to see it as preventative; not seeing each other prevents further problems," Mrs McVey said. "It could have been in the prison category, but we have brought it down because of your lack of previous convictions and early guilty plea."