A YORK man has been jailed for two years after a series of “brutish” assaults on his girlfriend.

Steven McShane, 42, grabbed and shook his girlfriend, pinned her to the ground by her neck, pulled her off the sofa by her hair, and even broke into her flat brandishing a screwdriver, before he was arrested in February this year.

The court heard McShane and his girlfriend had first had a relationship 20 years ago, but reunited in 2014. Though the first month went well, McShane soon started drinking, taking drugs and abusing her.

Prosecutor Charlotte Eastwood told the judge that in February, McShane twice shook the woman, once pinning her to the floor by her neck, and punching a hole in her door. After the second assault, on February 26, the police were called, and McShane left the home, only to return later that night.

He came with ladders at around 9.20pm and climbed to her bedroom window, broke in brandishing a screwdriver and attacked her.

She was left with a puncture to her knee. She ran to the living room, where he followed her and said “You’re going to get it now” before flinging her to the floor.

Neighbours heard the disturbance and called the police, and McShane tried to force his victim to say she was fine, but she refused.

Defence lawyer Christopher Dunn said his client, who pleaded guilty to all four charges, was in the grip of a serious drug addiction.

Sentencing, Judge Stephen Ashurst said McShane displayed “brutish behaviour”. He jailed him for two years for two counts of common assault, one of criminal damage, and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

McShane, formerly of Lown Hill, off Cornlands Road, Acomb, York, had been recalled to prison on licence from an earlier offence and appeared at York Crown Court via video link from Hull Prison.