A man who abused his partner and forced her eight-year-old daughter to drink washing-up liquid has been thrown in jail for two and a half years.
Dalton Jefferies, 22, was first exposed when his young victim started talking about his violent actions at school, prompting police to arrest him.
Jefferies had been in a relationship with the woman he abused for four months last year, prosecutor Anna Pope told a Wales court.
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Jefferies had angry outbursts and caused both physical and psychological damage to the woman, including demeaning her in front of her friends, banning her from taking her phone with her when she left the room, and taking his fury out on items of furniture.
A court heard he tried to strangle her and would self-harm either by rubbing himself with sandpaper or opening a car door at 50mph and scraping his foot on the ground.
He would try to blame the woman for his self-destructive actions as well as the damage to his trainers. The woman's child witnessed Jefferies' outbursts and self-harming and was afraid of him, the court heard.
Jefferies would force the eight-year-old girl's cheeks together to open her mouth and make her drink washing-up liquid, which would make the girl sick and cause stomach aches.
Evidence began to emerge last September when the youngster started speaking up about her experiences at school.
Her mum, too, started making recordings of Jefferies' violent behaviour and threats, including one incident where he threatened "to chew her tongue off".
Jefferies was arrested last October.
He admitted using controlling and coercive behaviour and child cruelty, for which he will serve a 15-month jail term.
Jefferies, of Llangefni in Anglesey, Wales, has also been handed a restraining order preventing him from contacting his victims.
Defending, Philip Clemo said Jefferies, who appeared via a video link from HMP Berwyn, had had a traumatic past and a personality disorder.
He said: "He does not want to use his appalling childhood and mental health issues as an excuse when he's sitting on a bench on a video link talking to a Crown Court judge for the rest of his life. He wants to do better than that."
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Judge Timothy Petts told Jefferies: "What you did to both of the [victims] was awful," adding that the psychological impact on both victims is ongoing.
"It's clear you had a very difficult upbringing.
"But you are now an adult and need to behave rather better. You have shown minimal remorse, blaming [the woman] for what happened for most of the time. If you breach this restraining order a custodial sentence is likely to follow."
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