A thug spared jail last year for a three-day attack on his ex-girlfriend returned to her Ashford home to subject her to another terrifying ordeal.

Aaron Henderson, who also uses the spelling Aarran, had been told by a judge in September that rehabilitation was "the only way" to provide public protection from his violent outbursts.

He was also handed a 15-year restraining order banning contact with the woman, with whom he was said to have shared a "toxic, 13-year relationship".

But Canterbury Crown Court heard on Friday, February 16, how just weeks later the 46-year-old threw away that chance given to him in the form of a suspended sentence to launch yet another vicious assault on her.

His victim has now been left so scared of his beatings that she fears she will one day end up as "just another statistic".

The court was told the woman was asleep at home when she woke in the early hours of November 28 to find Henderson standing over her.

He sinisterly told her to "Ssh" before becoming emotional and irate and telling his former partner to stab him because he wanted to die.

But when she refused, he started to strike her to the face.

Prosecutor Amelia Norman said the woman tried to fight him off, telling Henderson he would end up killing her.

In her desperate struggle, she grabbed a wine bottle and hit him, causing a cut and forcing him to stop.

But Henderson unleashed further violence as the woman tended to his bleeding head with a towel.

"He continued to assault her, got on top of her and repeatedly punched her to the face," said the prosecutor.

"I want him to receive justice but I also feel he will kill me and ultimately I will be seen as just another statistic...”

"While he was assaulting her she was trying to fight him off and then he was, she said, suddenly gone."

The victim suffered what were described as "quite severe" black eyes and bruising to her body.

She sought hospital treatment but on her return home she was greeted by a gift bag left on her doormat.

Inside it was a handwritten note from Henderson in which he proposed marriage and asked her to "promise to love him forever", the court was told.

Less than a fortnight later, he turned up on her doorstep again. She was not there but he cried as he told her father that he needed to speak to her because he loved her.

Police were called but Henderson fled over a roof and neighbouring fences.

When he was finally arrested, he told police he was waiting for his ex to "come home".

In a victim personal statement read to the court, she described how the impact of the bully's latest abuse "could not be measured".

"I want him to receive justice but I also feel he will kill me and ultimately I will be seen as just another statistic," she said.

"He has broken me. He has ruined my life."

Henderson, of Chester Road, Ilford in Essex, later pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm and two breaches of a restraining order. A charge of burglary was left on file.

He also admitted breaching the 17-month suspended jail term imposed for three previous assaults in which he punched and spat at the same victim.

Stringent conditions attached to that sentence had included 120 days of alcohol abstinence and monitoring, 50 days' rehabilitation activity requirement, and attendance on the accredited Building Better Relationships programme.

The court on that occasion was told that Henderson had not only undertaken several courses while on remand to address his behaviour but even secured "through his own efforts" a charity-run residential rehabilitation placement in Croydon.

However, having been released from custody four days before that programme was due to start, Henderson found himself homeless and back on drink and drugs.

As a result, he never showed up for the course.

Phil Rowley, defending Henderson at his latest hearing, told the court how his life had been blighted by alcohol from the age of 12, and "relatively quickly" thereafter by drugs.

Describing the plumber as "disappointed" to be back behind bars, Mr Rowley added: "He recognises that, to ensure this is his last sentence, he will need to address his demons on his release."

Jailing Henderson, who has 40 previous convictions for 82 offences - many of them domestic-related - for a total of three years and 10 months, Recorder Vivian Walters said it was "hard to imagine the terror" his ex-partner must have felt when she woke to find him at her bedside.

"It is not an exaggeration to say you have made her life unbearable. She has been terrified of your behaviour," she told Henderson.

In September when the suspended prison term had been imposed, Judge Simon Taylor KC had stressed that sentencing guidelines restricted his powers to such an extent that protection of the public from Henderson could be "best achieved through rehabilitation".

But he had warned the thug of the likely consequences if he failed to comply.

The court had heard on that occasion how Henderson left the woman with bruising to a hand and eye, a cut to her eyebrow, and a broken fingernail.

He later claimed he had punched her because she was "being a mouthy s**g".

The restraining order imposed at that hearing remains in force and is not expected to expire until September 2038.