A MAN now based in Oswestry was jailed for 18 months this week for attacking and imprisoning his girlfriend, leaving her so scared she installed a 'panic room' in her new flat.

Roger Collins was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court for 18 months this week after he attacked his partner Diane Morris over what he perceived to be an insufficient amount of money she had transferred for his dead brother's memorial.

The 52-year-old took the terrified woman's pillow, sentimental to her because it belonged to her deceased dad, and smothered her with it.

Collins, who has a history of committing domestic violence, punched her to the side of her face, enraged that she had started to fight back.

He followed Ms Morris downstairs as she fled, locking the front and back doors, removing the keys, and confiscating her mobile phone.

The victim was left imprisoned in her own home in Orford, Warrington, for several hours, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

The frightening ordeal went on for so long that Ms Morris had to endure the indignity of urinating into a salad bowl.

A phone landline was also damaged in the dispute on September 3, last year.

The alarm was only raised when Ms Morris' son turned up at the home and found his mum severely distressed.

In 2012, Collins was cautioned for battery after punching his partner in the chest, while four years later, he was handed a conditional discharge for another battery; this time grabbing a different victim and pulling her hair, so she fell to the floor.

In the same year, 2016, he shoved the same girlfriend into a wheelie bin, slapped her and grabbed her by the throat.

Collins has since moved to Oswestry, where he is in a relationship with a new woman, who is a counsellor and knows about his violent past.

Also present in court was Ms Morris, with members of her family.

Judge Gary Woodhall, who jailed Collins, said: "Ms Morris was left in a terrible state, her own home had become a place where she didn't feel secure and safe.

"You do continue to have a risk of danger to partners."

A restraining order, to run for six years, was imposed on Collins.

The ordeal has left the victim traumatised and suffering from flashbacks, prosecutor Paulinus Barnes said.

In a Victim Impact Statement, Ms Morris said she sustained soft tissue damage, with bruising and soreness to her jaw and forearm.

She now is spooked by noises in the night, has flashbacks to the smothering and "feels Paul will turn up, force his way in and assault me further."

The Warrington woman has moved to a new ground floor flat and asked for extra locks to be put on the doors and windows, where she has turned a cupboard into a 'panic room' with a fold-up chair and water.

Her dad's pillow, once seen as a source of "comfort" is now tainted, she said, in which she sees Collins' face.