A violent drunken thug who flipped after his girlfriend called him by her ex’s name has been jailed for three years.

Michael Montauro left the woman with a badly broken arm when he repeatedly kicked her, before throttling her to point where she almost passed out.

The 28-year-old then told her he was getting a knife but instead returned with a baseball bat leaving her fearing for her life.

And when he realised the seriousness of the injury to her arm he took her to hospital, only to drive off after telling to say she had fallen down the stairs.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the couple had been in a volatile relationship with jealousy going both ways.

She said the couple went out on the night of Wednesday June 19 and she thought they were likely to get back together.

In the early hours he was getting annoyed with her, suggesting she was contacting an ex and during the following argument she accidentally called him Jordan.

She said Montauro ‘exploded’ and jumped off the sofa, knocking her to the ground where, knowing what was coming, she rolled up into a ball.

He then aimed a full powered kick at her head, smashing her left arm which she was using to protect her face.

The thug then landed a further four full force kicks to her body as he yelled ‘So you want to call me Jordan?’ or something like that.

She managed to get up, and feeling her arm limp, tried to get away but he grabbed her by the hair and then began strangling her. As his hand tightened round her throat she felt herself losing consciousness.

She thought he saw her fading and stopped but when she said her arm was hurting he first threatened to get a knife then produced the bat and told her to stop crying.

“He said if the police came he would finish her off before they came in,” Miss Hingston said.

He referred to an earlier time when she had dropped a complaint against him after dialling 999.

After dropping her at the hospital, having realised the seriousness of her broken arm, he left, saying he knew he shouldn’t be driving. Initially she kept to the story he had ordered her to tell she eventually revealed to medics what had actually happened.

As result of the injury she had to undergo an operation on a displaced fracture to her ulna and as a result has a long scar on her forearm.

Montauro, of Gifford Road, Stratton St Margaret, pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm.

The court heard he had a history of violence which, though mainly on men, also included another incident with a former partner.

Rob Ross, defending, said that his client realised he faced jail for what was a serious attack though pointed it out it was not the worst on ‘the matrix of awfulness’.

Jailing him Judge Jason Taylor QC said “Your previous convictions show a worrying willingness to resort to violence."

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