A MAN picked up his girlfriend by her hair and punched her repeatedly while her feet were off the ground, a court heard.
Gareth Davies, 31, appeared in court on Tuesday accused of beating up his partner at the flat they shared in Redhill.
He is charged with causing actual bodily harm to 22-year-old Jamie-Lee Cooksey on June 19 this year at their flat in Tylehurst Drive.
Opening the case, prosecutor John Upton told Guildford Crown Court that Miss Cooksey's ordeal went on for more than an hour. She eventually fled by jumping out of a window and running for help to the newsagent around the corner – Holborns in Hooley Lane.
The jury was shown five photographs of her injuries following the alleged attack, including two "horrific" black eyes, a bandage above her left eye and bruising to her chest, arm and shoulder.
The attack allegedly happened after Davies accused Miss Cooksey of shouting as she encouraged him not to miss an appointment. Mr Upton said: "His response was to tell her to stop shouting and you will hear she said she was not shouting. He then proceeded to punch her with clenched fists about the face and the ribs.
"He grabbed her by the hair so her feet were not touching the floor and carried on punching her to the face and the body, and throughout all this he was telling her to be quiet and not to shout and saying he didn't want to assault her but she had pushed him to do it.
"This punching and shouting, we will hear, went on for more than an hour.
"At one stage he stopped and told her to clean the floors up because her blood was all over them. While she was cleaning the floors he picked her up by the hair and started thumping her again."
He also ordered her to make him a cup of tea and to put some washing on, including towels stained with her blood, claimed Mr Upton.
Eventually he calmed down, started to cry and said he wanted to go to sleep, he said.
Mr Upton said: "She eventually managed to get out by jumping out of a window. She ran to a newsagent around the corner. She ran in there crying and asked if they could call the police. They [staff] were very concerned, concerned enough to hide her in their stock room while they called the police."
Mr Davies was later arrested and interviewed by police. Mr Upton said Mr Davies told them Miss Cooksey was bipolar and had not taken her medication.
He said she had head-butted the wall, causing the injury to her head, and the bruises had happened in a fall.
The couple had been together for six months at the time of the incident.
The court heard that earlier on the day of the alleged attack, Miss Cooksey was on her way to the races at Ascot when Davies contacted her to say he was on the platform at Redhill station and felt suicidal. She cancelled her plans to go to him and bring him home.
Davies denies the charge. The case continues.
