Paranoid Mansfield man jailed for violent attacks on partner of three weeks

Ryan Smith first accused the woman of texting another man just three days after they first met, on June 29, and his "paranoia continued to escalate," said prosecutor Katrina Wilson.

When she began cleaning her home, Smith accused her of "covering up the fact that other men had been at the address," and asked: "When is your lover coming round?"

On July 8, he launched a violent and prolonged attack after slipping while she cleaned the floor, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

He repeatedly slammed her head against a kitchen unit until she was hysterical, then shouted: "You wouldn't be crying if you were innocent."

Smith followed her upstairs, grabbed her by the hair and spat in her face, before striking her multiple times with a brush handle.

Three days later, he set up a new sim card in her phone, "so he could keep track of who she was communicating with," and struck her on the thigh.

He accused her of sneaking downstairs in the night to have sex with another man, and later texted her to say "she had only had a taster of what was to come," Ms Wilson said.

The court heard Smith has 18 previous convictions for 47 offences, including violence towards, and harassment of, women and former partners. He has been jailed four times in the last six years.

Marie Spenwyn, mitigating, said Smith deserved credit for his early guilty pleas.

"He welcomes help,” she said. “He still hasn't had any help for mental health in prison. These offences, while shocking, take place within the same period of time."

Psychiatrists have diagnosed him as having mixed personality and paranoid personality disorders.

Smith, 36, of Nottingham Road, Mansfield, admitted assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, criminal damage and controlling and coercive behaviour.

On Friday, Judge Stuart Rafferty QC told him: "There is a rage burning inside you when you are in a relationship. A paranoid belief that you are betrayed at every end and turn by every woman you're with.”

Sentencing Smith to three years, the judge warned him that “any further assault will mean an extended sentence.”

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