A DRUNK with a broken leg, who beat his girlfriend with a crutch, has been jailed.

Leo Geraghty, 45, was already on police bail after assaulting his partner Tania Wilson and breaking her ribs. But Ms Wilson took pity on the father-of-two after learning he had been injured.

Liverpool Crown Court heard when she arrived at his house to care for him he was aggressive after losing £175 in a taxi.

Graham Pickavance, prosecuting, said the drug addict began to savagely attack Ms Wilson with the crutch – causing cuts and bruising to her leg.

Judge Nigel Gilmour, QC, said: "It is an act of cowardice and brutality for a man to attack a woman, particularly one you must have claimed to have some feelings for."

He jailed Geraghty for total of 23 months and imposed a three-year restraining order banning him from going near Ms Wilson.

The court heard the first attack, on March 6, had been completely unprovoked, but came two years after Geraghty was given a community order for assaulting Ms Wilson.

Judge Gilmour said: "She fell to the ground. Like the coward you are, you then kicked her when she was on the ground and fractured her ribs."

Ms Wilson was knocked unconscious in the attack. But she had been on the phone to her mother, who heard the commotion and raised the alarm.

Geraghty was arrested and granted bail.

But he was picked up by police again on June 2 after battering Ms Wilson with his crutch.

Geraghty, of Gilroy Road, Everton, admitted two assaults occasioning actual bodily on the day his trial was due to start.

Ben Morris, defending, told how Geraghty had never been in a violent relationship before.

He said: "This relationship that they had was one based on a crack cocaine addition and an alcohol addiction."

He added: "Mr Geraghty realises his relationship with Miss Wilson is one that has led him to prison for the first time in 20 years.

"He bitterly regrets that."