A MAN has been jailed for cutting his partner’s ear with a knife in an incident that left her with other unexplained injuries.

There was no indication of trouble between Marvin Terence Higgins, 47, and the woman when they returned home from an evening in the pub, said Paul Nicholson, prosecuting.

The woman went into the kitchen and Higgins went upstairs.

All the woman could remember of what happened afterwards was a blow to her head and feeling she couldn’t breathe, said Mr Nicholson.

She was left covered in blood with a knife wound to her ear, a bruised jaw and a bruised tongue.

Chloe Fairley, for Higgins, said the couple had been “play fighting” and that in the course of it he had the knife in his hand.

“That is the only explanation he can proffer,” she said at York Crown Court.

“I find that difficult to believe,” said Judge Paul Worsley QC. “It appears to be a totally unprovoked attack. Everyone is described as being happy and then suddenly this happens.

“This is a very worrying offence because it involved a weapon and it was upon a vulnerable young woman who trusted you.”

Higgins, of Doherty Walk, Foxwood, admitted wounding the woman’s ear with a small knife and was jailed for 27 months.

He had 177 previous convictions and had been imprisoned for violence in the past.

Mr Nicholson said the woman, who was in court, didn’t want Higgins as her partner any more. The cut was two to three centimetres long.

Ms Fairley said Higgins accepted the relationship was over.

Immediately after the incident, he had called the ambulance and the police.

“It does demonstrate his shock at what had occurred, a degree of remorse. The focus was on trying to her help as soon as possible,” she said.

She handed in a letter from Higgins she said showed “genuine remorse” .