A jealous boyfriend has been jailed for nearly two years after attacking his bathing partner and forcing her head underwater while telling her daughter not to worry.
Perry Jackson, 30, held his victim underwater while she desperately fought for air.
She had managed to dial 999 before Jackson tried to drown her and he was heard by operators as her phone lay on the floor.
Prosecutor Ian Foinette told how the woman could hear her child screaming on the other side of the bathroom door at her home in Strood, Kent.
The terrified woman fought for air after her neck had been gripped by Jackson, Maidstone Crown Court heard.
Perry Jackson, 30, (pictured) held his victim underwater while she desperately fought for air at her home in Strood, Kent
She eventually managed to escape and call the police despite being unable to talk.
The couple had been in a volatile relationship while the love-cheat was still in a long-term relationship with another woman.
The shocking bath attack was triggered by a row in which Jackson got angry as she put on make-up while she got ready to go to work.
He then became further enraged when she received a text from her boss.
They then fought over the phone, which he threw against a wall leaving her with bruising to her arms and thighs.
Mr Foinette said the mother was taking a bath that evening ‘hopeful the relationship was over,’ only to hear her boyfriend return and come up the stairs.
He said: ‘He knelt down beside the bath, took hold of the back of her head and then forced her under the water.
‘She describes how she was having difficulty breathing and could hear her daughter screaming behind the bathroom door because the defendant had closed it.
Prosecutor Ian Foinette told Maidstone Crown Court (pictured) how the woman could hear her child screaming on the other side of the bathroom door at her home
‘Eventually she managed to get herself out. There was water everywhere and items that had been in the bath were all over the floor.
‘The defendant however had said to her daughter ”Don’t worry, Mummy’s just been splashing around in the bath”, or words to that effect.’
Mr Foinette added the woman had at some stage dialled 999 and left her phone in a position where the unfolding events could be heard.
He said: ‘She was in a very distressed state. The defendant complained that she had made him wet and, to keep the peace, she offered to dry his clothes.’
Arresting officers described Jackson as ‘ready for confrontation’ and had to be restrained on the floor once at the police station.
The court heard he called a Sikh officer a racist derogatory term and threatened: ‘Outside work I’m going to find you and rip your beard off your chin..’
When interviewed he claimed his lover had ‘stitched ‘ him up.
Jackson, formerly from Chatham, Kent but now in Norwich, Norfolk pleaded guilty to five offences of assault by beating before a jury was sworn.
He also admitted damaging the mother’s phone, having a bladed article – a meat cleaver found in his car’s glove compartment, racially aggravated harassment and resisting arrest.
Judge Stephen Thomas told the violent thug: ‘These offences represent a serious course of conduct of domestic violence against your former partner.
‘The most serious was when she was alone in the bath, thinking she was at peace and safe in her own house.
‘You came into that property, grabbed her around the neck and put her head under the water, this being seen or worried about by her very young child.’
The judge also said that racist abuse of the police ‘cannot be tolerated’.
A five-year restraining order banning Jackson from having any contact with the woman or going to either her home address or workplace was also made.
He denied an offence of controlling and coercive behaviour, which was accepted by the prosecution and left on the court file.
Edmund Fowler, defending, said the couple’s relationship was ‘intense, extreme and unusual in that it was outside his domestic arrangements.’
He added ‘jealousy on both sides was blown out of proportion.’
Jackson was also said have written an apology to the officer he racially abused, and the cleaver was ‘not something he waved around in public’ but kept for trimming hedges, Mr Fowler said.