A MAN jailed for five years for repeatedly assaulting his partner was branded a danger to women by a judge.

Martin Jamie Laird stabbed his former girlfriend Anne O'Donnell in the head, narrowly missing her eye, deliberately fractured her finger, held a knife to her throat, punched her and pulled her hair out. His aggression was said to be caused by the death of his father and his subsequent heavy drinking of strong cider.

Laird, aged 28, formerly of Imperial Drive, Leigh, was due to stand trial at Bolton Crown Court for wounding Anne O'Donnell with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, but changed his plea to guilty as the trial was due to start.

He also admitted common assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm against the same woman and was also re-sentenced for four assaults occasioning actual bodily harm committed previously against Miss O'Donnell.

He was re-sentenced because he had committed the later assaults in breach of a three-year probation order imposed for the four assault offences.

Judge Roberts said he had acted "like a monster" to his partner and that she had been left with emotional and physical scars resulting from the stab wound to her head. Prosecutor Tina Landale told the court that Laird and O'Donnell had been in a relationship for more than four years and had lived together for five months.

Laird was always aggressive and abusive to her when he had been drinking and following a row over From Page 1 turning the TV down he dragged Miss O'Donnell to the floor by her hair and punched her.

He then later punched her and when she refused to have sex with him he stabbed her in the head with a bread knife. If she had not turned away quickly the knife would have entered her eye.

There were more assaults and in the last one she had been talking to her mother on the telephone when he hit her, fracturing her finger. Her father had heard the fight and had gone round to the house and stopped Laird hitting her.

Laird told police he had lost his temper and couldn't remember much about the incidents.

He committed the offences while on probation for four previous assaults, where he had punched her and bitten her breast, held a sharp metal comb and then a breadknife to her throat, punched her in the head and stabbed her in the shoulder with a knife.

Defending Andrew Marrs said Laird's mother had died when he was two years old and he had been brought up by his father until he died of a sudden heart attack when Laird was 24.

He had failed to cope with his father's death properly, had received no counselling and turned to strong drink to drown his sorrow.

He had always worked and met his former girlfriend when they both worked at a meat factory in Leigh. When he was drinking he could get through a 24 pack of superstrong White Lightning cider in one session.