A JEALOUS thug who headbutted his estranged partner in a pub carpark after he wrongly thought she was seeing another man has been jailed.

Preston Crown Court heard how Jake Darren Smith and his victim had known each other for a number of years and had started a relationship in October 2018.

However that relationship ended in January.

Prosecuting Paul Cummings said the victim was in the Bay Horse Pub in Oswaldtwistle with her mother when she bumped into 27-year-old Smith.

Mr Cummings said: “She went over to speak to him because she didn’t expect to see him in there. That wasn’t his usual drinking venue.

“As she went over to speak to him she noticed one of her ex-boyfriends was also in the pub.

"The defendant mistakenly assumed they were in there together.”

Mr Cummings said the victim left the pub in a bid to defuse the situation but Smith followed her outside.

The court heard how Smith headbutted her and the next thing she remembered was sitting on a wall, feeling dizzy with blood coming from her mouth.

She initially thought she had lost a tooth in the attack but that subsequently turned out to be a denture.

Although she accepted she had been drinking the victim believes she had blacked out at some stage during the attack.

Mr Cummings said at the end of that incident she remembered the defendant shouting over to her to get in his car and offering to take her to hospital.

However just days later, on May 1, the defendant turned up at the victim’s home and a further argument ensued. At some point in the heated exchange Smith, of Bradley Road East, Nelson, damaged an internal door.

Smith, who has 26 previous convictions for offences including battery, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage.

Defending, Mark Stuart said the victim, who is pregnant, had been visiting the defendant in prison and he knew he had to change his behaviour and deal with his anger issues to have any chance of seeing his child.

Mr Stuart said: “It is an unpleasant incident. He can only apologise to her for the way he behaved. He knows at some stage he has got to get some assistance.”

Jailing Smith for 21 weeks, Judge Beverley Lunt said: “To headbutt a woman is a cowardly act. To headbutt someone you have been in a relationship with is just disgusting and disgraceful. You are lucky, as is she, that the injuries were not more serious."

Speaking from the dock about his intention to change, Smith told Judge Lunt: “I need to do it for myself your honour.”