A JEALOUS controlling thug subjected his frightened new girlfriend to a catalogue of violent and humiliating attacks including making her bark like a dog while on her hands and knees and wade into the River Mersey in the dark.

Keiran Hemmings had been “very nice” to her at first but within weeks of meeting his conduct changed after he became jealous of her former partner and their relationship became volatile.

On April 12 this year they met at the home of a mutual friend on the Wirral and after a row he “back-handed her” to the face. He left and later returned as if nothing had happened but his jealously flared again and he “back-handed” her again seven or eight times and “there was blood everywhere,” said Sarah Holt, prosecuting.

She suffered two separate agonising fractures to her jaw on each side but he refused to let her go to hospital and put a knife to her wrists. She managed to escape in the early hours of the morning but he followed her as she was walking along New Ferry Road at New Ferry.

The road leads to the river and he ordered her to wade into the Mersey and she found herself calf deep in the muddy water. “He was pushing her and if she stopped he pushed her over saying ‘if you don’t get up I’m going to drown you’,”.

“She told him it was pointless and told him it was cold and she could swim.”

As they walked along afterwards Hemmings repeatedly poked her with a small knife and she feared he was going to stab her.

The next day she underwent surgery for the double jaw fracture and had to have titanium plates and screws inserted.

Liverpool Crown Court heard today (Thur) that a week later on April 22 this year the woman, who had only begun a relationship with him the previous month, visited Hemmings, who was at a friend’s supported accommodation at Ash Villas in Wallasey and he made her sign in in a false name and took her phone off her.

He became annoyed after spotting messages on her phone from her ex-partner. “It clearly angered him and he started humiliating her and made her dance for him and threw pennies while she did so.

“He made her get on all fours and bark like a dog and also made her have a shower with the curtains open while he watched. At various times he kept saying he was going to kill her and chop her up,” said Sarah Holt, prosecuting.

After he found something else on her phone that angered him “he placed both hands around her neck and strangled her until she lost consciousness.

“When she came round and tried to leave she described how he pinned her down and made threats to her family including that her niece would be kidnapped and her mother stabbed.”

He also pressed a large “knuckle duster knife” against her….and he made her get on her hands and knees and beg.” She calmed him down “by keeping him sweet, saying she loved him” and he let her leave when the friend returned to the flat.”

Hemmings was later arrested and when interviewed claimed she was lying to get compensation cash.

Judge Denis Watson, QC, told Hemmings that his “paranoia and jealousy” had led to him treating her in “a controlling, humiliating and demeaning” way.

“This was disgraceful behaviour. She was extremely vulnerable and it was a degrading and humiliating conduct,” he said.

The court heard that the victim has had to move out of the Wallasey area and is still struggling emotionally and also physically from pain from her jaw injuries. She is now isolated from her family and is on medication for anxiety and depression. She had to give up her horse which left her distraught.

She feels paranoid and it has impacted negatively on her friendships. She has been unable to get a job, suffers night terrors and flashbacks.

His previous convictions include robbery, burglary, possessing a knife and assaulting a former girlfriend by repeatedly punching her in the face.

And he breached a restraining order to keep away from her and while in her car on a motorway while she was 20 weeks pregnant he struck her in the face causing the car to crash and he ran away leaving her with facial injuries.

Judge Watson ruled that Hemmings poses a danger and sentenced him to four years imprisonment with a year’s extra licence, meaning he will have to serve at least two thirds of the jail term.

Hemmings, of Croxteth Road, Toxteth, who has handcuffed and also cuffed to a dock officer, shouted out while being sentenced, that the relationship had been “a mistake.” The judge imposed a ten year restraining order to keep away from the victim and not to enter Magazine Lane in New Brighton.

Peter Killen, defending, said that Hemmings, who pleaded guilty to wounding, assault and possessing a knife, is now motivated to rehabilitate himself. He had a troubled early life but while in custody has been on a programme which has had some success in affecting his views.