A MAN who dragged his girlfriend to the floor by her hair, before repeatedly kicking her in the head, after drinking seven cans of strong lager, has been jailed.

Michael Smith launched the vicious attack on his partner after a day of drinking at a friend's house last summer.

The incident left his girlfriend, a Miss Adair, covered with bruises and forced her to sleep in her car as she had nowhere safe to take refuge.

Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard that prior to the attack 38-year-old Smith and Miss Adair had been in a relationship for around eight months, and were living together in his Warth Road flat.

However, Chloe Fordham, prosecuting, told the court that Smith was an alcoholic, who also suffered from depression and post traumatic stress disorder, and would become "paranoid and aggressive" when he had been drinking.

On August 12 last year Miss Adair had been spending the day with friends while Smith was out on a bail for assaulting her just a few weeks earlier.

"Miss Adair had had enough of Mr Smith's aggressive behaviour and went to stay with friends," Miss Fordham said.

"She had been there a couple of hours when Mr Smith turned up. She clearly thought he had been drinking but he seemed to be in a good mood.

"He came into the flat and carried on drinking alcohol ­— she thinks about six or seven cans of strong lager.

"When day turned to evening, Mr Smith turned argumentative and started an argument with her in the upstairs of the house.

"He dragged her off the sofa by her hair and pulled her around the floor. He then started to kick her in the head repeatedly while wearing his shoes."

Smith also punched Miss Adair and she was unable to fight him off or calm him down, Miss Fordham added.

Eventually Miss Adair managed to get up from the floor and ran out of the flat. But with nowhere else to go, she was forced to spend the night sleeping in her car, the court heard.

The attack left Miss Adair with swelling to her forehead, bruising down the left side of her body, her leg, and arm, and hair pulled from her scalp from where she had been dragged.

Two days after the incident, Miss Adair returned to Smith's flat to take a bath, believing the offender had gone to stay with friends.

However, neighbours alerted the police who took Miss Adair to safety and later arrested Smith.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Miss Adair said: "When I first provided a statement I was still in a relationship with Michael.

"I didn't want him to get sent to prison I just wanted him to get help. Now I think prison is the only place he can get help."

She continued that the attack had left her with heightened anxiety, adding: "I'm so very scared that next time I see Michael on the street he will beat me up. I don't think I would be very safe in Bury."

Smith pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing.

Sentencing him to 12 months in prison, Judge Bernard Lever said: "This was an unpleasant assault because you pushed her to the ground and applied your foot to her face.

"We have seen the bruises and this was a significant and quite sustained assault."

Smith was also made subject to a restraining order prohibiting from contacting Miss Adair for five years.