A JEALOUS partner left his lover feeling ‘like a human football’ after a sustained attack at her home in Clitheroe, a court heard.

James Anthony Ford, 48, had also yanked out clumps of Yolande Pendlebury’s hair, leaving her temporarily bald in places, Preston Crown Court was told.

Neighbours alerted police when they heard sounds of violence at Ms Pendlebury’s home and police later broke up the attack.

Prosecutor David Pickup said Ford had been drinking and arrived home on September 21, to find his partner was also intoxicated.

He took her mobile phone off her and began searching through it, before telling her he was ‘going to kill her’.

Ford then repeatedly kicked and punched his victim to the head and body, said Mr Pickup, until she felt ‘like a human football’.

He dragged her to the bedroom, still threatening her, prompting neighbours to call the police. When officers arrived they could hear him hitting her upstairs and he was arrested.

The court heard Ford, who admitted assault and possession of cannabis and amphetamines, had previously been given a suspended sentence in January.

This was for an attack on a man in a pub whom Ms Pendlebury had apparently ‘poured out her troubles’ to last October.

Jailing him for 16 months, Judge Christopher Cornwall said the latest offence was just another example of the defendant’s jealousy and controlling nature.

The court heard Ford had suffered a post-operative heart attack earlier in the year and now realised he needed to change his conduct.