A MAN who threatened to kill a woman, drown her kittens and torch her car has been jailed.

Matthew Collins, prosecuting, said Daniel Matthewman, 29, repeatedly assaulted the woman during their 18-month relationship.

During one attack he told her: "I am going to kill you" as he choked her.

“The victim recalls thinking this was how she would die” the barrister said.

During another he had dragged her into her house as she screamed to a neighbour for help.

Before one of the attacks, Matthewman had made a nasty Facebook comment about her referring to "poison".

After she told police about the violence, Matthewman phoned her to say he would “chop her head off” and "torch her car".

He attacked her twice more after the phone call before being remanded in custody.

Matthewman, 29, of Nalton Street, Selby , pleaded guilty to one charge of causing actual bodily harm, three assaults, criminal damage to her phone, criminal damage to her car keys and witness intimidation.

"When in drink you are a violent, controlling and abusive individual," the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told him.

Matthewman had made "cruel" threats to injure the woman's cat and throw her kittens in a river.

"This lady clearly is very attached to her cats," the judge said at York Crown Court.

Matthewman was jailed for 27 months and made subject to a five-year restraining order banning him from contacting the woman or going to the street where she lives.

Defence solicitor advocate Neal Kutte said Matthewman planned to move to Northern Ireland on release to be with his father.

"He has absolutely no intention of going anywhere near her," he said.

Matthewman was remorseful and ashamed for his actions, all of which had happened when he had been drinking.

He had been drinking heavily to cope with mental health problems, but drink only exacerbated them.