A domestic abuser has been jailed for dragging his ex partner around her home by her hair and leaving her injured.

Colin Saunders told the victim he could 'demolish her' during a prolonged attack at her Exmouth home.

He started by banging her face down against a coffee table until her nose split and then dragged her into the kitchen by her hair, leaving carpet burns on her legs and a cut where her foot caught on a doorway.

He slammed her head against a door and kicked her in the back before halting the violence and calling for an ambulance. She was terrified and has been left with a scar on her face.

When she was sobbing and bleeding on the ground he told her: "You think you are f***ing clever but I'm bigger and harder than you. I could demolish you right now."

Saunders is a former water company worker who became hooked on drugs after suffering a serious industrial accident. He attacked the victim after she stopped him taking her prescribed medication.

He has a record of 45 previous offences and already served one jail sentence for a previous attack on the victim during a ten year on-off relationship.

Saunders, aged 45, of Prowess, Hemlock, denied causing actual bodily harm but was found guilty by Exeter magistrates and his case was transferred to Exeter Crown Court for sentence.

He was jailed for a year and four months by Judge Timothy Rose, who also imposed a restraining order banning any contact with the victim and barring him from entering Exmouth.

He told him: "You assaulted her very substantially... You beat her up in a variety of ways, using more than one implement by way of a weapon. There is no difference between picking up a table and hitting someone and hitting someone against a table."

Emily Cook, prosecuting, said Saunders and the victim had been in a relationship for 12 years but were living apart at the time of the assault on the evening of June 30 this year.

She found him going through her medication and saw some of it in his bag. She asked for it back and then told him to get out, leading to a violent reaction.

Paramedics found her shaken and confused and him apparently under the influence of medication. She needed hospital treatment for a cut on her foot and her face was bruised and cut.

He claimed he had only just arrived at the house and found her injured.

Kelly Scrivener, defending, said Saunders has had a long struggle with addictions to both illegal and prescribed drugs but is keen to address the problem.

He worked for a water company until being injured in an accident and now suffers from PTSD and a spinal injury. He accepts his relationship with the victim is over.