A MAN who attacked and injured his girlfriend this week after a row told police that he had wanted to hurt her and it had felt good.

Michael Wyness, 36, of Deerhurst Way, Toothill, pleaded guilty on Tuesday when he appeared before the town’s magistrates on a charge of assault.

Prosecutor Kate Prince told the court that Wyness and his girlfriend had moved in together shortly after meeting two years ago.

They lived in a ground-floor room of a house of shared occupancy in Deerhurst Way. Their relationship had been volatile and there had been one previous reported act of violence, Mrs Prince said.

At around 11am on Monday, December 4, Wyness asked his girlfriend to walk with him into town to sort out his finances. She said no, that she wanted to take the bus rather than walk.

Wyness swore at her and accused her of being lazy and selfish. She then threw a cup of coffee at him, after which he began to shout, punched her and grabbed her by the hair, hitting her head against pipes on the wall twice.

She fled to a toilet and spoke to another person in the house, describing Wyness as frenzied, and the police were called.

When interviewed Wyness admitted he had been angry, had grabbed his girlfriend and hit her head twice on the bed.

He said it felt good, that he had been so angry he could have killed her and he had wanted to hurt her.

When told by the police of the severity of the bruising he had caused, Wyness said: “Good. She loves it.”

Mrs Prince said the attack was a Category 1 offence against a vulnerable woman trapped in her own home.

She said Wyness had a previous conviction for assault and one for battery but not in the same relationship.

Defending, Mark Glendenning said Wyness accepted the assault charge adding that they had lived together in one share room and fought at times.

After the coffee hit him on the back of the neck Wyness went into a rage, Mr Glendenning said, adding that his client suffered from depression and although not a habitual drug user had taken crack cocaine for three days before the assault.

The case was adjourned until Monday, December 11, for probation reports to be prepared.

Wyness, who had been in custody overnight, was released on bail on the condition that he had no contact with his victim, did not go to Deerhurst Way other than one visit to collect his belongings accompanied by a police officer, and that he turn up at court again on Monday at 9.30am.

In 2013 Wyness pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman in Swindon on just before Christmas 2012. He was given a nine-month conditional discharge and told to pay £85 costs plus a £15 victim surcharge.