A kitchen porter who punched his partner in the face, breaking her eye socket, has been jailed for more than a year and a half.

Simon Ryan was on a community order for attacking his girlfriend of five years when, on October 19 last year, he subjected her to a devasting single punch at the Calne home she shared with her son.

Jailing the 32-year-old for 20 months at Swindon Crown Court, Judge Jason Taylor QC said: “It is my duty to sentence on behalf of the wider public and what I must concentrate on is the seriousness of the offence itself and the seriousness is aggravated here because you have a proven history of violence – notably against her [your partner].”

Prosecutor Rob Welling said Ryan’s girlfriend had grown angry after she spotted cans of beer in the house, which he had bought to drink during a World Cup rugby game. She was not supposed to have alcohol in the house.

That morning they had argued over the woman’s son, who was not in the home. Ryan cornered her and she tried to put some distance between them by slapping him.

The defendant then struck her in the face with enough force to fracture her eye socket, Mr Welling said.

Ryan ran from the house in the direction of a nearby Sainsbury’s and was picked up around an hour later. “His first response and something he repeated in interview was she had inflicted the injury upon herself. Of course, he cannot and does not claim that to be what happened.”

He had three convictions for four offences, including an assault on the same partner in 2018.

Defending, Nicholas Clough said his client was remorseful and accepted the seriousness of the assault. “Simon Ryan is the first to recognise that a domestic assault resulting in the fracture of an eye socket richly deserves to result in imprisonment.”

He had had a difficult upbringing and had witnessed domestic abuse at home. He had split with his family over allegations his father had used his name to commit benefit fraud, Mr Clough told the court. The kitchen porter had been on furlough during lockdown and feared he would lose his accommodation if he were jailed.

Ryan, of Barken Road, Chippenham, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm.

Jailing the man for 20 months, Judge Taylor said: “I take the view that I cannot suspend it. To do so would be an affront to my public duty.”