AN “obsessive and possessive” man who beat his partner, punching her at least 100 times and keeping her prisoner, during a horrifying ordeal has been jailed for three years.

Marc Long met his partner and moved in but she said the “red flags were flying” and in September last year she had formed an affection for another man.

On September 14, Long found text messages on the woman’s phone between her and the other man, he flew into a rage. Between 6pm and 4am the following day he attacked her at her home in Mullins Close, Basingstoke, Winchester Crown Court was told on Monday.

During the ordeal, the victim was lifted up and thrown against the wall, had her face slammed into the sofa and punched in the back at least 10 times, strangled and was spat at directly into her face.

Prosecutor Charles Gabb said: “The defendant was making threats that she was going to die and effectively the only way she should leave the property was in a body bag.”

She made attempts to escape the house, but each time Long dragged her back inside.

“There came a time it seems just about four o’clock where the defendant changed from rage to almost a picture of self-pity,” prosecutor Charles Gabb said.

“She (the victim) was obviously petrified and terrified of the experience that she had to endure.”

The 33-year-old allowed his partner to go to the shops but she instead fled to her mother’s house. She was covered in bruises, with matted hair and sobbing.

Police were called but Long claimed that the woman had beat him up.

Mr Recorder Nicholas Haggan QC said: “You were jealous, you suspected she was having a relationship with that man, you called her a cheating rat and then you punched her.

“Over the following 10 or 11 hours or so that you were at that property with her you subjected her to a catalogue of violence and threats.

“(The victim) estimates that you punched her at least 100 times.

“Throughout that period of some 11 hours you held her against her will for four hours.

“At one point she told the police she was so desperate that she considered climbing out the third-floor bathroom window to get away from you.”

Long had previously pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage.

In mitigation, Francisca da Costa said that Long, of no fixed abode, was upset after seeing the text messages.

She continued: “It is absolutely no excuse for his behaviour, and he accepts that, but he felt betrayed by her actions.

“Mr Long is someone who has struggled with anger, when he was just a child he grew up in a home where there was domestic abuse between his parents.”

The court was told that Long wishes to work on issue anger issues and has been taken courses while in custody to deal with the problem.