Jealous 26st father fractured 4ft 10in ex-girlfriend's face in 20 places after he found out she was seeing another man

A jealous father who weighs 26 stone has been jailed after he battered his former girlfriend until she passed out.

Thomas Day, 39, left Helen Callaghan - who is 4ft10in and weighs just six stone - with horrific injuries after he punched and throttled her in a fit of jealousy after learning she was seeing another man, a court heard.

The couple's two children, aged ten and six, walked into the room moments after the attack to find their father, who is almost 6ft tall, standing over 28-year-old Miss Callaghan's body.
The children ran from the home and into the arms of concerned neighbours.

Miss Callaghan’s face was fractured in 20 places, including her cheeks, nose and eye sockets. Surgeons have implanted metal plates into her jaw and cheeks and are trying to reconstruct her face from photographs taken before the attack in June.
Police first arrested Day on suspicion of attempted murder, to which he said: 'If I wanted her dead, I would have killed her.'

The charge was later reduced to a serious assault.
Day pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm when he appeared earlier at Manchester Crown Court.

He also admitted a common assault on Miss Callaghan two weeks earlier and a charge of affray after he lost his temper in a pub where she worked.

Day, of Fallowfield, also pleaded guilty to importing £1,000 of cannabis into the UK from Goa in India.
The defendant showed no emotion as he was jailed for nine years and four months, but said ‘I love you’ to his family in the public gallery.

Judge Michael Henshell told Day: 'Jealousy is the most potent and dangerous of emotions and it causes untold harm.

'The injuries were extensive and almost fatal. They are the most appalling of injuries. This was an incredibly vicious and forceful attack on a woman, by you, in the home where she was living, while two children were in the house.'

Miss Callaghan was first attacked by Day on June 16, this year.

The pair had a row at their home in Northern Moor, Wythenshaw, before Miss Callaghan left in the early hours of the morning for her father's house in Burnage.

Day followed her there and scratched her face with a knife, it was said.

The following week, on June 23, he lost his temper in a bar in Withington, where Miss Callaghan works.

He smashed pool cues and threatened to kill one of Miss Callaghan’s colleagues, it was said.

Finally on June 30, Day launched his most vicious attack.

As he came to collect the children from the family home, he found messages on her phone that she was seeing someone else.

Paul Tonge, defending, said: 'He was a little surprised to find her still in bed during that fateful visit and he saw information on her mobile phone which confirmed his fears that she was in a new relationship. It was like steam let from a pressure cooker.'

Mr Tonge told the court his client was remorseful and ‘sickened by what he has done’ but had been a good father to the couple’s two children.

Extracts from Miss Callaghan’s victim impact statement were read out in court. She said: 'The surgeon has asked for lots of photographs from before the incident and is hopeful he can make me look the same again.'

Miss Callaghan declined to speak after the hearing but agreed to have pictures of her injuries published.