A ‘CONTROLLING’ man who launched a violent, ‘vindictive’ attack on the teenage mother of his children has been jailed for two years.

Kane Jones burned, whipped, punched and kicked his girlfriend during a sustained attack when he flew into a drunken, jealous, rage.

Now the 21-year-old, who the next morning said she was to blame for the incident, is also banned from contacting her for three years unless through lawyers.

Jones had denied two counts of actual bodily harm, saying he was acting in self defence, but a jury convicted him of both matters.

Charley Patterson, defending, said her client had no previous convictions showing the assault was an isolated incident.

She said he did not normally drink but had turned to alcohol at the time of the offence after the loss of his grandfather.

Since then he had given up drinking and ‘expresses sincere remorse for what happened that night’.

Jailing him Judge Tim Mousley QC said: “It is serious in the sense that she was covered in bruises and abrasions and scratches and burns and welts.

“It may be in relation to the burns at least she will be permanently scarred.

“It all started because you were jealous of her. That was probably exacerbated by the amount of drink you had taken. She was vulnerable and it was a sustained assault. It is a bad incident of domestic violence and characterised by your seeking to control her. You did it in a vindictive way.’’ Jones launched the assault on his girlfriend, who was then 17, in front of their young children because he was upset she’d had boyfriends before him.

In an unusual case the judge ruled her witness statement could be read to the jury, despite her not being there to be cross-examined. Although a witness summons was issued to get her before the court and she had told police she would attend she ‘went missing’ on the morning of the trial.

The jury of seven men and five women heard what she told officers hours after the attack, and also saw an album of 106 photos detailing injuries all over her body.

They were told Jones, of Calcutt Park, Cricklade, started to argue with his partner of three years about her having boyfriends before him on the night of Sunday June 22. She told him ‘I’m not arguing with you’ but at about 11pm, as she was putting their baby to bed, he started to punch and kick her, leaving her with numerous bruises.

She said he took the charger for the baby thermometer and used it as a whip to lash her, leaving marks and breaking the skin.

“I was crying and asking him to stop but this just continued. I don’t know how long this lasted,’’ she told officers.

“He picked up a lighter and heated it up, held it against my shoulder and the back of my neck and caused it to blister. I screamed out in agony.

The following morning, before going to work as a landscape gardener, he told her it was her fault he had done it.

“He said to me ‘Look what you had me to do’, by which he meant it was my fault because I had had boyfriends," she told the police.