A “COERCIVE and controlling” partner told his girlfriend to sleep on bare floorboards like a dog and repeatedly strangled her, York Crown Court heard.

She later told police she feared Paul Robert Precious, 40, was going to kill her, said Philip Morley, prosecuting.

He was banned from going to her home or contacting her by a court order. But for months he defied it, frequently going to her home. There he assaulted her on three occasions, smashing her head against a wall, grabbing her round the throat and strangling her, and slept in her bed.

One evening, Precious pushed her out of her bed onto bare floorboards.

“He said ‘sleep on the floor like the dog. That is what you are’,” said Mr Morley.

Later, after trying to sleep by curling up on the floor, she tried to get into bed, but he refused to let her in and kicked her thigh causing a big bruise.

On another occasion, when he grabbed her by the throat and bent her onto a bath, she screamed so loudly he stopped because he didn’t want workmen outside to hear her.

Precious has previous convictions for assaulting her and a previous partner.

Precious, of Rockingham Avenue, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to two charges of assault, one of actual bodily harm and two of breaching a restraining order. A charge of witness intimidation which he denied was left on file, which means it will be on his record but will not be a conviction.

Judge Simon Hickey said Precious had showed “coercive and controlling behaviour”.

He jailed him for 29 months and extended the existing restraining order banning him from her street and from contacting her for 10 years.

For Precious, Fiona Clancy said: “He is very remorseful. He wants to get his head down, serve his sentence and move on.”

He had not been living with the woman continuously, but for a time had been working on oil rigs. He had anger management problems which he wanted to tackle. He had had a 19-year relationship with another woman without problems, said the defence barrister.

Mr Morley said the restraining order had been made on June 11, but Precious had been in contact with the woman “very quickly” afterwards.

Precious disagreed with the prosecution account of how contact was made.