A FORMER professional boxer from Worcester who treated his girlfriend “like a punchbag” in a drunken attack has been jailed.

Long distance lorry driver Ervine Blake had been drinking vodka when he launched an assault on Kim Smith at her home, Worcester Crown Court heard.

The 50-year-old punched her in the eye as she backed away and asked him what he was doing, Alex Warren, prosecuting, told the court.“He repeatedly punched her about the head and body as if she were a punchbag,” he said.

She called out to her two young boys who were upstairs, Mr Warren said. Her 12-year-old son went into the kitchen and started to wipe the blood from his mother’s face when Blake swung a punch at him. It missed and he ran out and called the police. When they arrived in the early hours of February 19, Blake was sitting at the kitchen table while Ms Smith and her son were sitting on the floor crying. She had injuries to her face and body which were not serious.

Blake, of Raglan Street, Worcester, pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm and common assault. He said he could not remember what happened.

Satveer Pnaiser, defending, said Blake and his girlfriend had known each other when they were teenagers and had rekindled the relationship five weeks earlier. He worked away as a lorry driver during the week, often sleeping in his cab, and stayed with her at the weekends. Miss Pnaiser said he was full of remorse and still hoped their relationship had a future.

She said Blake had three children from a previous relationship, one at university, and he would have trouble finding work on his release if he was jailed. Judge Robert Juckes, QC, said Blake had a history of drinking and violence. He gave Blake an immediate jail sentence of 11 months, minus two days for time spent on an electronically tagged curfew.