A jealous thug who strip-searched his girlfriend at knifepoint and battered her with a hammer during a ‘chilling’ campaign of domestic abuse has been jailed for eight years.
Paranoid Jordan Cooper, 31, also kicked Josie Higgins, from Birmingham, in the stomach ‘so she couldn’t have children’ after quizzing her about her ex-boyfriends.
A court heard the violent bully launched his attacks after being released from prison for stabbing a 71-year-old woman in the neck with a screwdriver.
He had met Miss Higgins following his release from jail in May this year and quickly began a relationship with descended into violence.
In the early hours of May 4 she was at her home in Solihull, West Midlands, when Cooper turned up, and at first she refused to let him in, but then opened the door.
Jordan Cooper, 31, (pictured) strip-searched his girlfriend at knifepoint and battered her with a hammer during a ‘chilling’ campaign of domestic abuse
Once inside Cooper started interrogating her about her past boyfriends, listing the names of men they both knew, and began punching her to the face.
Miss Higgins ran from the flat screaming and bleeding but he caught her and began strangling her with such force that she was struggling for breath.
Cooper then ran back into the flat and escaped by jumping from a window as the neighbours called the police after hearing the commotion.
But at that time Miss Higgins, who had bruising, swelling and bleeding to her face, felt she could not make a complaint.
She did not see him for some time, but in July he pleaded with her, promising he would never hurt her again, and eventually she agreed to see him at his aunt’s home.
Once she arrived he demanded to carry out a strip search to make sure she was not wearing a ‘wire’ and began quizzing her about whether she’d been with other men.
He produced a three-inch kitchen knife which he held to her neck and grabbed her by the hair before launching a relentless attack, leaving her bleeding from cuts to her face
Cooper, of Solihull, pleaded guilty to wounding and three charges of assault causing actual bodily harm at Warwick Crown Court (pictured) on Wednesday
Prosecutor Amy Jackson said: ‘He eventually let her go, but not before spitting five times into her face.’
Three days later he made her go to his home where he got a hammer and began hitting her to the side of her head, striking her each time she gave an answer he did not like.
He then made her lie on the floor and kicked her three times to the stomach, telling her she would not have any more children.
But the police then turned up at the address, concerned for her safety, and at first she was reluctant to make a complaint in case Cooper blamed her for calling them.
Before the second attack, Cooper had gone to the home of a friend of her aunt, Louise Kuzminski, who was on her phone when he demanded she find a number for him.
She told him he could have it when she had finished her call, at which he reacted by trying to grab it and then punching her at least 20 times to the head and face.
Ms Kuzminski bled profusely, with her clothes and the sofa left covered in blood, and her injuries included a puncture wound to her forehead a cut below her eye.
Miss Jackson added that Cooper had previous convictions for violence, and in 2014 had been jailed for five years and nine months for an unprovoked attack on a pensioner.
He approached her on a canal and stabbed her in the neck with a screwdriver before dragging her to the floor, kicking her and dragging her towards the canal by her hair.
He only stopped the attack and made off on foot when he heard other people coming along the towpath.
Beth Crocker, defending, said: ‘He appreciates how serious these offences are, and he’s realistic as to the type of sentence he faces.
‘He makes no excuses for his behaviour.’
Cooper has now been handed an extended eight year prison sentence after being branded a danger to women
Cooper, of Solihull, pleaded guilty to wounding and three charges of assault causing actual bodily harm at Warwick Crown Court on Wednesday.
He will have to serve at least two-thirds of the sentence and will only be released when the Parole Board considers it safe to do so.
Sentencing, Judge Anthony Potter said: ‘I deal with you for four assaults on two different women. Three of them, in my opinion, involve a weapon of some sort.
‘All were within weeks of your licence having expired on a sentence for an unprovoked assault on a 71-year-old woman. That is a feature of grave concern.’
Of Cooper’s third attack on Miss Higgins, Judge Potter said: ‘It is an assault which was chilling in its manner. You showed her absolutely no mercy at all.
‘I am satisfied you present a significant risk of causing serious harm to the public by committing further offences.’