A JUDGE slammed a career criminal who beat up his former girlfriend after she had let him stay at her flat.

Judge Peter Ralls told Robert Doughty who had slapped, kicked and stamped on Lisa King he had treated her in an appalling and degrading way.

Imposing a three and a half year sentence, he said: “This was a nasty, spiteful and vicious domestic assault on someone who had offered you kindess. There is no excuse or justification for what you did.”

Southampton Crown Court heard how the pair had co-habited for about 18 months until they separated but he later contacted her, pleading for another chance, and lived in a camper van outside her flat. Prosecutor Carl Anderson said out of sympathy, Ms King let him stay home but that was not “a signal” that she was going to re-start their relationship.

The violence flared one evening after she had found divorce papers from his wife and his mood changed, grabbing her hair and pushing her head into a sofa. The following morning after she had told him to leave, he again grabbed her hair, banged her head on a chair, slapped her and hit her so hard she lost consciousness. When she tried to get up, he kicked her in the back and stamped on her stomach. He fled after she screamed for help from neighbours and heard police sirens.

Said to have 44 previous convictions for 215 offences, Doughty, of Albert Road South, Southampton, admitted causing actual bodily harm, battery and breaching a 16 weeks suspended sentence.

Peter Henry, defending, accepted the violence was prolonged and had caused the victim anxiety but stressed she had suffered no significant injuries.