A BOYFRIEND who broke his long-term girlfriend’s arm in a fit of jealous paranoiac rage has been jailed.

Ashley Joe Delaney, 29, kicked the woman as she lay on the floor in their living room, York Crown Court heard.

She raised her arm in self-defence and he hit it with his foot.

Moments before he had grabbed her mobile phone out of her hand as she was talking to her mother.

The woman has now ended their relationship.

Delaney’s barrister Lorraine Harris said: “Because of his actions, he knows he has lost the best thing in his life.”

Delaney, of Lendales, Pickering, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm. He was jailed for 20 months.

“You had drunk yourself into a jealous rage,” Judge Andrew Stubbs QC told him. “You deliberately kicked a vulnerable victim lying as she was on the floor, defenceless against your assault.”

Delaney has previous convictions for violence, including domestic violence in a previous relationship and told police he had become paranoiac that his girlfriend was with another man, the court heard.

Ms Harris said Delaney regretted what he had done against someone he loved very much.

He needed help to tackle his problems with alcohol, how to control his temper and how to handle himself within relationships.

He had been going to an alcohol rehabilitation centre for some time, starting before he broke the woman’s arm.