A MAN who "demolished" the side of his partner's face after telling her "you're going to die tonight" has been jailed for five years.

Michael Dann, 23, tried to strangle young mum Rebecca Hornby before knocking her out with a heavy punch, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Miss Hornby suffered a fractured eye socket and cheekbone in the vicious attack at her home in Bradford on July 25 last year.

Prosecutor Abigail Langford said yesterday that Miss Hornby went to a neighbour for help when she regained consciousness.

Dann, of Knowles Lane, Holme Wood, Bradford, who had convictions for violence towards police officers, at first claimed Miss Hornby attacked him with a hammer or an axe.

But when his case was due to be tried last month, he pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent.

Miss Langford said the couple's previously happy relationship deteriorated following a family tragedy in late 2014.

On the day of the attack, they met up for a meal and drinks but Miss Hornby sensed an atmosphere and, after they returned home, the mood deteriorated.

Dann slapped Miss Hornby and she told him to leave the house.

He left but came back and tried to wrestle her phone from her.

At one point, Dann put both his hands around Miss Hornby's neck, saying: "You're going to die tonight."

She managed to break free but he swung a punch that struck her left eye socket.

"She described that blow as being without warning and she felt like she had been blinded. She couldn't see out of her left eye and said the pain was indescribable," Miss Langford said.

In her police statement, Miss Hornby said she thought Dann was going to kill her.

He also admitted assaulting a police officer after his arrest, for which he received a concurrent two month jail sentence.

Barrister Emma Downing, for Dann, said his late guilty plea had spared Miss Hornby the ordeal of having to relive the attack in court.

He was ashamed of himself and realised he now faced a prison sentence for his appalling violence that night.

Judge Colin Burn said Dann had effectively "demolished" the side of Miss Hornby's face.

He had been drinking steadily throughout the afternoon and night and something that was said caused him to completely lose control.

"It was, on any view, an extremely heavy blow which broke her eye socket and her cheekbone, effectively demolishing one side of her face, putting it bluntly," the judge told Dann.

"I sentence you on the basis it was with your fist, but it must have been an extremely heavy, vicious and full force blow to cause that sort of damage.

"I am bound to say Mr Dann you are extremely fortunate, as indeed is she, that even worse damage wasn't caused as a result of that blow...bad enough as it was."