A “SERIAL abuser of women” has been jailed for reducing his latest girlfriend to a battered, penniless and terrified state.

Paul David Thackray was given a three-year jail term for “strikingly similar” offences against an earlier girlfriend in 2015, said Recorder Andrew Dallas.

While on parole from that sentence, he failed to go on a course for domestic abusers, started living with a third woman and concerned probation officers so much they recalled him to prison.

He has previous convictions for domestic violence against a fourth partner and for assaulting his sister, the judge said.

“No woman is safe with him. Don’t have anything to do with him,” the latest victim said as she left York Crown Court.

The Independent Domestic Abuse Service (IDAS) praised her courage in speaking out and ending her ordeal

The latest victim told the court she is still too scarred by months of physical, emotional and psychological abuse to return to the flat where he lived with her, three months after she was taken to hospital.

“I want to be able to live in my home, to be independent again,” she said. “I don’t want to be scared of being in my home or in the city where I live. I want to be able to walk down my street and not have to cover my face and body.”

Thackray’s actions had driven her to take cannabis and to run up debts as he made her pay for things for him.

Jonathan Foy, prosecuting, said Thackray’s final sustained assault on her began with him throttling her and had left her vomiting.

She had so many bruises on her when she arrived at hospital, doctors gave her a CT scan and kept her in for 24 hours for observations.

“You are a serial abuser of women,” Recorder Andrew Dallas told Thackray.

Jailing him for 33 months, he said Thackray had deliberately targeted the latest victim, who was a vulnerable person.

He had quickly turned their relationship into a “coercive and violent” one.

Thackray, 28, formerly of York, pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm and two assaults. He was given a 10-year restraining order to protect the latest victim.

For him, Kirsten Mercer said he had experienced violence as a child and was motivated to change his ways.

He had left York to live with a friend in Thirsk and had no income as he had no job and wasn’t claiming benefits.

In 2015 and 2019, York Crown Court heard how he targeted a vulnerable woman, moved in with her, got her into debt, manipulated her emotionally and psychologically and regularly assaulted her.

An IDAS spokesperson said: “It can take immense courage and bravery to speak out and access support.

“We are pleased that the survivor in this case was able to access our vital services and that justice has been served. We would urge anyone who is concerned about someone they know, or who thinks that they may be in an abusive relationship, to get in touch with us at the earliest opportunity on our helpline 03000 110 110.”