A drinker was today starting two-and-a-half years in jail for hitting his ex-girlfriend repeatedly with a hammer and breaking her skull.

Amanda Blake had gone to Timothy Owen Peirson's home for help in kicking her drug habit, York Crown Court heard. But in a drink and drug-fuelled attack, he fractured her skull.

His barrister, Sandy Munro, said he hit out because she was kissing his brother and that Peirson had such a record for violence and other offences a policeman described him as a "walking charge sheet". He has served jail sentences for attacking police.

Peirson, 32, who was brought up in Pickering but moved to Carr Lane, East Ayton, near Scarborough, pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm.

Judge Alan Goldsack QC said: "This was an assault late at night on a former girlfriend when clearly everyone had been drinking. As a result of your assault on her, the victim sustained a fractured skull, which may well have been caused by her falling backwards as a result of the first punch."

He jailed Peirson on the day he was due to be released from prison after serving a four-month sentence for driving whilst disqualified.

Prosecuting, David Bradshaw said Peirson and Ms Blake had had a relationship two years before the attack. The two had been drinking to excess with Peirson's brother in Carr Lane.

Mr Munro said his client had taken prescribed and illegal drugs as well as alcohol before the attack.

Ms Blake had believed staying with Peirson and his wife would help her start a new life without drugs.

Updated: 11:45 Wednesday, April 04, 2001