A WINSFORD man is back behind bars after subjecting his partner to months of ‘terrifying’ attacks - starting just three days after she gave birth to their stillborn child.

Jonathan Spann and his victim had been having an on-off relationship since they met on a dating app in 2019. 

The 33-year-old, who was previously jailed in 2012 for rape, began abusing his partner in September 2022, with the ordeal lasting until May 2023.

During this time, Spann strangled her, tore out her hair while punching her in the face, and smashed her over the head with a wine bottle, leaving matted hair, broken glass and blood all over the bathroom floor.

He also beat her over the head and back with the leg of a broken child’s table, which a neighbour found covered in blood when she came to help after she heard screaming.

This all took place in the victim’s home, where Spann had no legal right to be, but when asked to leave on one occasion, said: “If I leave this house, you won’t be left alive in it.”

On another occasion, he asked her whether she thought ‘a fire engine would fit down her street.’  

His victim, who already had two children when they met, hid the abuse from her family and, on one occasion, pretended she’d fallen down the stairs and hit her eye on a child’s safety gate.

She said she allowed the violence to go on because the trauma of her stillbirth meant she wasn’t able to process what he was doing to her.

He also told her she’d have her children taken off her if she reported him to the police.

After the victim found the courage to speak out, Spann, of Weaver Grove, was arrested on January 30, 2024.

Police charged him with three counts each of intentional strangulation and assault causing actual bodily harm in relation to incidents between September 2022 and May 2023.

He pleaded not guilty before magistrates, but changed his plea to guilty at a pre-trial hearing at Chester Crown Court on February 29, where he was remanded in custody.  

At his sentence hearing on Friday, April 12, Laura Knightly, defending, said: “These significant physical assaults began after the death of their child, which was a time of severe mental strain."

Miss Knightly said Spann was drinking heavily and using cocaine at the time, which ‘served to aggravate’ his behaviour.

She said he ‘is not a man without use’, adding he’s been behaving well in prison, and even has a role as a mentor for other prisoners.

Passing sentence, the recorder, Mark Ainsworth, said: “These incidents must have been absolutely terrifying for your victim.

“They took place in her home, where she is entitled to feel safe, though she ended up hiding from you.

“You had suffered trauma out of bereavement, but she was grieving too.

“These are plainly very serious offences, and it’s clear you pose a very high risk of serious harm to both your victim, and the wider public.”

Spann was sentenced to a total of three years for the six offences. He’ll also serve an extended licence period of two years.

Recorder Ainsworth also made a restraining order banning him from contacting his victim save through child services or the family court, until further notice.