A YORK man has been jailed for beating up his former girlfriend so badly she was left blind in one eye.

Mark Carroll, 22, of Sycamore Avenue, New Earswick, was jailed at Teesside Crown Court for two years and eight months, after pleading guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Mother of two Kelly Winter, 25, from Hartlepool, was 26-weeks pregnant with Carroll’s son, Lewis, who is now five months old, when he attacked her in November.

The attack left Kelly with a broken nose, cheek bone and jaw, and he threw a mug at her, which left her blind in her left eye. She had to have a five-hour operation to reconstruct the side of her face, which now has metal plates in it.

Kelly now suffers depression and already had to deal with Crohn’s Disease for which she will be on medication her whole life.

Her eight-year-old daughter, Chloe, witnessed the attacks and also had to have counselling.

Carroll is not allowed to see or contact Kelly for five years, but she said she was still scared.

Kelly said: “It will probably only be ten months before he is released from prison, which is quite scary because he knows where I live.

“I get the blame from his family. They say their son’s locked up because of me and all I’ve got is a cut on my eye.”

Kelly went out with Carroll for two years, and she said he turned nasty after a year, playing mind games and hitting her when he was drunk.

“I blame myself that my girl has seen it all,” she said.

“I think: why didn’t I get out of this situation? But I was frightened and I tried to split up with him, but he beat the door off the hinges. I was frightened for my little girl and I didn’t want to get my parents involved.”

Kelly spoke out to encourage other women who were affected by domestic violence to seek help.

She said she didn’t know that organisations, such as Harbour, formerly North Tees Women’s Aid, could move victims of domestic violence into refuges.

“I learned the hard way and it’s going to take time for me to get over this,” she said.