A VIOLENT Stourport man who tortured his pregnant wife by holding her head under water and wiring her to a battery charger has been jailed for 12 years at Worcester Crown Court.

Jordan Lee also hit her with a metal pole and a broom handle, and kicked and punched her repeatedly, said Andrew Lockhart, prosecuting.

After threatening to kill her, he called an ambulance but warned her to lie that she had been attacked with a metal bar on her way to a fish and chip shop.

But paramedics became suspicious and the full story came out when Elizabeth Lee was interviewed in hospital.

Lee, 30, of Linden Avenue, pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on November 9 last year.

The couple had been together three-and-a-half years and had children aged 20 months and eight months at the time of the attack, said Mr Lockhart. Mrs Lee was also 10 weeks pregnant.

Lee came home drunk and because the bedroom light was out, wrongly suspected his wife had been entertaining a manfriend. The ferocity of his attack left the bedroom and bathroom covered in blood.

He grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up by the neck. She was badly cut and so badly bruised that a hospital doctor could not believe no bones were broken.

Lee, who had two previous convictions for violence, also contacted his brother from prison and asked him to try and persuade his wife not to make a complaint.

Andrew Baker, defending, said Lee had shown remorse but was unlikely to see his children again. He had been featured on TV as a model prisoner and had made tape recordings of stories he read his children.

But Judge Michael Mott said he had never before experienced such a case of prolonged torture. The aggravating feature was that the wife was pregnant and the children were present.

In addition, Lee had tried to concoct a bogus account. The judge pointed out that if he fought the case and had been convicted by a jury, the sentence would have been 18 years.