A man who throttled his partner and trashed the home of a large family of children has been jailed.

Kevin Campey, 41, told the victim: “You don’t know what I am capable of” as he cut up her clothes with a pair of scissors, said Brooke Morrison, prosecuting at York Crown Court.

In the early hours of May 20, he grabbed the victim’s face and they fell to the floor in her bedroom.

“The defendant grabbed her by the neck and squeezed, causing red marks and scratches to the neck,” said Ms Morrison.

After he had left the room, she listened in terror as he overturned furniture including a large bed and pulled out the contents of every drawer in the house where her children were sleeping

When the morning came and he had fallen asleep, she left the bedroom.

“The house was entirely trashed,” said Ms Morrison.

The victim got her children and herself out of the house and went for help.

Just days before, Campey had been given a community order by York magistrates for assaulting a neighbour and damaging his property.

“Only a sentence of immediate imprisonment is appropriate for this kind of offending,” said Judge Simon Hickey.

Campey should have been supporting the woman in dealing with the medical problems of their baby, but instead he had been drinking and taking drugs for his own selfish reasons, the judge said.

Campey, formerly of Acomb, and now of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to two charges of causing actual bodily harm and one of criminal damage.

He was jailed for two years and handed a seven-year restraining order, banning him from contacting the victim and going to her home.

He has 55 convictions including house burglary and violence.

Ms Morrison said that on Christmas Day Campey gave the woman victim a black eye after he had been drinking.

She concealed what he had done, telling people it had been caused by her falling over and landing on a vacuum cleaner.

On May 19 Campey was again drinking. In the early hours, after the woman had gone to bed, he went into her bedroom.

For Campey, Emma Williams said: “He would never have acted like this if it wasn’t for the drugs he had taken.”

His mental health had been deteriorating, the drugs made it worse and he hadn’t been able to seek help, said Ms Williams.

“He wishes to apologise to the complainant," she added. "He realises this should never have happened. He accepts full responsibility.”

Campey’s mother had died last year and his baby daughter had been so ill she had had to be in an induced coma for weeks, said the defence barrister.

He couldn’t cope and had taken out his frustration on the woman. He wanted to be in jail so he could keep off drink and drugs because he realised what they were doing to his life.