A THUG who "bullied, abused and degraded" his partner in a campaign of "terror" has been jailed.

Benjamin Dobson, 29, threatened to kill the woman and her family in a campaign a judge described as "one of the worst" he had ever seen.

Dobson, who lived in York, subjected his victim to nearly two years of torment from August 2018, which left her suffering night terrors, the court heard.

He was paranoid about his partner having affairs and controlled her friendships and finances, prosecutor Michael Cahill told York Crown Court.

Dobson even told her what she could and could not wear, the court heard.

In August 2018, Dobson turned up at her workplace and was so enraged as he drove her home that she asked to be let out of the car, but he wouldn’t let her.

The court heard how he vetted her friends and even made a list of her male friends on Facebook.

York Crown Court heard how jealous Dobson questioned where she had been one day after work in October that year and told her: “You thought your ex was bad: I’m going to kill you.”

He drove her down a quiet lane in Haxby, before stopping in a field and told her it was the last time she would see her family.

Mr Cahill added: “He said he had dug a hole for her and said it would be her last night."

Police had issued Dobson with a domestic violence protection order back in November 2018, only for him to breach the order three weeks later by turning up at her home.

He received a four-week prison sentence for that offence but following another incident in March 2019 she had to flee his York flat once again and seek refuge at her father’s house.

Dobson told her she had "10 minutes (to return to his flat) or he would go on a rampage and kill her father".

In early 2020 Dobson told her: “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”

He was finally arrested in March last year but denied all allegations.

During the trial, he admitted one count of engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour.

He denied two further allegations of false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm against the victim. The Crown ultimately accepted these pleas.

Dobson, now of Selby, was jailed for two years and 10 months and slapped with a lifetime restraining order banning him from contacting or approaching the victim.

Judge Sean Morris said Dobson had waged a "terror" campaign against the woman, adding: “This is one of the worst of these (types of) offences that I have come across.”

He told Dobson: “You are huge, powerfully built man. You bullied, abused, coerced, humiliated, degraded, your partner.

"She was not your slave.”