Derry Crown Court heard that Paul Kelpie (43), from Duddy’s Court in the Waterside, beat up his girlfriend - who was then four months pregnant - because he believed she was seeing someone else. He was jailed for twelve months.

Kelpie admitted kicking and punching his then twenty-eight years old partner in her Waterside home on October 2 last.

The court heard the attack was so “frenzied and prolonged” that some of the walls in the house were covered in blood.

Following the beating, the woman required seven staples and three stitches for injuries to her head, face and thigh.

A hospital scan showed that her unborn baby survived the assault and the court was told that Kelpie "took care he did not hit her around the abdomen.”

Jailing Kelpie, Judge Philip Babington said that photographs from the scene showed blood on the floor, walls, curtains and on the sofa in the woman's home.

Defence barrister Gordon Talbot said Kelpie had a "tempestuous on-off relationship with his partner" whom he described as "not a completely shrinking violet who has two convictions for assault.”

Mr. Talbot said that, at the time of the assault, the defendant "was worried about the parentage of the child which he now accepts is his."

He added that Kelpie, who turned himself into the police, was ashamed of his actions.

Mr. Talbot said it was the injured party's wish that the defendant - the father of her four children - should not be sent to jail.

However, Judge Babington described Kelpie's assault as "frenzied, prolonged and fairly horrific."

History of domestic violence

"What concerns me even more are the contents of a pre-sentence report which discloses a prolonged history of domestic violence and also his failure to address that,” said Judge Babington. “In this case he kicked and punched her as she was trying to protect herself in an attack that lasted ten to fifteen minutes.

"He believes he was sorely provoked. It went on for some time and it left the walls covered in blood.

“There is never any excuse for a man to do this in a domestic setting to a woman", he said.

As Kelpie was taken into custody, the injured party winked and blew a kiss at him.