A drunken abuser who beat a woman with a dog lead and threw away her phone to stop her calling for help has been jailed.

Paul French, of Bunyan Close in Pirton, near Hitchin, was handed a 20-week prison term by Stevenage magistrates on Tuesday last week.

The court heard that French, 41 – who pleaded guilty to two counts of assault – had used a dog lead as a weapon during the incident last month, causing her bruising.

The bench, chaired by Nigel Pollard, noted the involvement of alcohol and French’s previous assaults on the same victim while passing sentence.

The court also imposed a restraining order forbidding French to contact his victim and barring him from a named address for two years.

French, who must pay £150 compensation to his victim, was already jailed for drink-driving last month after being found at the wheel while more than three times the alcohol limit.

That offence was committed less than two months after French received a suspended jail sentence for two counts of assaulting a woman in February and April this year.