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An abusive man who assaulted, dominated and controlled his ex-partner was jailed for eight months today.

Jailing Grant Macneil at Ballymena Magistrates Court, District Judge Nigel Broderick told the 29-year-old serial domestic abuser his “main problem is that he doesn’t treat females with respect.”

“You controlled this victim and would not allow her to see her family and friends and as if that wasn’t bad enough in terms of emotional abuse, you also physically assaulted her and caused her to struggle to breathe,” said the judge adding that “non-fatal strangulation is a red flag in terms of domestic abuse.”

Shortly before he was due to go on trial earlier this year Macneil, from Wellington Street in Kilmarnock, entered guilty pleas to three counts of common assault committed last November and to a single count of a domestic abuse offence committed between June 1 and November 23, last year, and “engaged in a course of behaviour that was abusive…and he intended the course of behaviour to cause the victim to suffer physical or psychological harm.”

A prosecuting lawyer told the court the victim contacted police on November 24 to report she had been subjected to “mental and physical abuse” since June.

“She had been controlled by him, not allowed to see family or friends and told that she had to stay at home with him,” said the lawyer.