A drunken thug who viciously attacked his girlfriend “for no good reason” has been jailed for 15 months.

Joseph Holderness was told by a judge he should be ashamed of his brutal and bullying behaviour.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Joseph Holderness had been to a wake on January 14 and returned home drunk in Gravesend with another man.

“For no good reason you then laid into (your girlfriend), punching her, pushing her and when she went to the ground you went to stamp on her,” said Judge Jeremy Carey.

“You got a knife and made foul threats about harming her children. Not content with that, when she got up you punched her in the face again.”

The victim managed to get up again and then called the police. When arrested, he denied doing anything wrong.

Holderness, of Palmer Avenue, Gravesend, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm.

Kieron Brand, defending, said the victim retracted her statement and did not support the prosecution.

It was a second assault by the 24-year-old father of two on a partner.

Alcohol was a contributing factor and he had started courses in prison to deal with it, as well as anger management, added Mr Brand.

Judge Carey told Holderness: “I am prepared to accept in your sober state you generally recognise and take the consequences for your wrongdoing.

“The difficulty for the public, and particularly any female you may have a relationship with in the future, is when you get drunk you act out of character and out of control, and then you are a danger and cause injury when you lay into somebody who is not as strong as you and you can easily hit without the likelihood of hitting you back.

“In other words, it is brutal and bullying behaviour of which you should be ashamed. This was a sustained and repeated assault. The injuries were not inconsiderable.”

Holderness had served a sentence for assaulting a previous partner and had breached a non-molestation order.

"You have not yet learnt your lesson," said the judge. "There is much work to do."