A MOTORIST who witnessed a woman escaping from a car at a set of traffic lights in Lydney, having seen her being ‘used as a punchbag’, helped end her ordeal by taking her to the local police station – hidden in the footwell of his car.

Gloucester Crown Court heard last week that Jeff Hopkins saw the woman being hit by a man as she drove through the town on December 20 last year and when she stopped at the traffic lights she managed to escape from her car and tried to enlist help from the driver in the vehicle behind.

But when Mr Hopkins, of Bristol, realised that the driver had refused, he shouted at the woman and grabbed her and told her to get into his car and lay on the floor.

He spun his car around and drove to Lydney Police Station where she was able to reveal to officers what had happened earlier that day.

The woman’s partner – former pro boxer Danny Gwilym – was given 34 months in jail after admitting charges of battery and assault causing his partner actual bodily harm between December 6 and 20.

But Judge Anthony Lowe said he was surprised the prosecution had not brought more serious charges because there was evidence of bite marks on the victim who had been “used like a punchbag”.

He said: “I am amazed that this level of violence was reflected with such a low charging decision.”

Judge Lowe told Gwilym: “Photographs show that you subjected her to a severe beating, repeatedly over a number of days.

“Why the Crown Prosecution Service did not charge you with something more serious than battery I question. It could have made a very big difference to the duration of the sentence I pass.”

Gwilym told the court: “I do not blame alcohol for my offending. Absolutely everything is my own fault, due to my failure to seek help. I am a weak, pathetic person by not abstaining from it.”

Prosecutor Edward Hollingsworth explained that Gwilym of Cranbrook Road, Redland, Bristol had ignored a condition of his release from prison in December not to contact his partner.

Mr Hollings said that although his behaviour was fine for a couple of days, he became violent on a daily basis after drinking.

She contacted police on December 12 after being sent on an errand and he was arrested and given court bail to stay with an uncle outside Gloucestershire.

He returned to his partner the following day but on December 20 his mood deteriorated and insults turned to punches while she was driving.

The prosecutor said: “She tried to get out of the car, but he grabbed her hair, preventing her from leaving. He then bit her on her head and he almost bit her ear off.

“At a set of traffic lights in Lydney she jumped out and went to the driver of the vehicle behind her for help, but was unsuccessful.

“However, she saw another man who had seen what was going on and he told her to get into his car and he hid her in the footwell and did a U-turn and took her to the nearest police station.”

Mark Linehan, defending said the former middleweight boxer “is genuinely remorseful and...has accepted his guilt.”

Mr Linehan said: “Gwilym stayed away from the courts for 11 years when he was alcohol free. But when tragedy struck with the deaths of three family members within a year he returned to alcohol.

“He accepts he has an appalling record for violence, but he does not blame anybody else for his behaviour. Alcohol has masked many of his problems.

Judge Lowe told Gwilym  – who once offered to fight Celebrity Big Brother Alex Reid for £1m – that he had his terrified victim ‘like a punchbag’

“She is a human being who was being used as a punchbag. 

‘‘She appears to be the third or fourth woman to become a victim of Gwilym’s hands.

“I notice in the pre-sentence report that the author suggests that the woman is a clear victim and the next time she meets with him and he loses his temper, she may end up dead. 

“I can entirely understand why this has been said. 

‘‘I am sure Gwilym is very nice when he is not in drink, but this pattern of abuse has already repeated itself again and again.”

He told Gwilym: “You have 30 previous convictions, of which 14 of them were for violence of one sort or another.

“I accept you have recognised the fact that alcohol is the dis-inhibitor which brings on your offending and you go on to beat up your partners.

“You have a very sorry history of offending and I have to sentence you to your latest bout of offending, two serious assaults against your long term partner.

“I have seen a set of horrendous photographs from that incident. 

“This is the highest level of assault for actual bodily harm. 

“The probation officer believes that if there is a next time, you will kill her. “

“I wish you the best in rehabilitating yourself. However it is with a heavy heart that I am not imposing a restraining order for you not to contact your partner.

“But if you touch a hair on her body in anger, you will not retain your liberty.”

Judge Lowe also voiced his concern that the victim has continued her association with Gwilym, putting herself at further risk.

“Unfortunately the courts see this so often in that battered women go back to a violent man and give him one more chance, again and again. 

‘‘They generally repeatedly get beaten up each time” said the judge.

“That is what happened in this case. 

‘‘Again and again. I have to sit in this seat and see the same scenario repeat itself over and over again, because the women never seem to quite get the message.”