A “controlling, manipulative” boyfriend who beat up two women has been jailed for the second time in a year.

Austin Newman, prosecuting, said that when Paul Lennon Starr’s latest girlfriend fled York to get away from him he followed her and his behaviour got her evicted from the sheltered housing where she had sought refuge.

When he was locked up for breaching his parole on an earlier jail term, he defied an order to leave her alone and continued to contact her from behind bars.

After his last attack on her at 3am, she was initially too terrified of him to make a formal complaint, but later changed her mind.

She is now receiving counselling and treatment for post traumatic stress disorder.

Their relationship started shortly after Starr was released from a sentence imposed in August for attacking a former girlfriend with a bicycle and trashing her home.

Starr, 42, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at York Crown Court to three charges of assaulting the first woman and one of criminal damage to her phone.

Judge Simon Hickey told him: “You were a controlling, manipulative man towards her. These counts reflect you making her life a misery.”

He jailed Starr for 10 months and made him subject to a 10-year restraining order banning him from contacting her in any way and getting anyone else to contact her on his behalf and from making any reference to her on any social media.

Starr has 150 previous convictions, including many for violence.

Emily Hassell, acting on Starr’s instructions, made allegations about the first woman and her conduct towards Starr. She said he only had one previous conviction for domestic violence.

Mr Newman said the woman, who cares for young children, was in hospital in August last year before she met Starr via Facebook.

He was jealous and abusive towards her, constantly checking on where she had been and who she had been with. On one occasion he was so abusive towards her in a park, a member of the public called in the police.

Starr was arrested but the woman was too scared to make a formal complaint and he was released on bail not to contact her.

While behind bars for breaching his prison licence, she moved to Scarborough.

But he continued to contact her and on his release, persuaded her to tell him where he was and moved in with her, breaching the rules of her sheltered accommodation.

She was evicted and came back to York. On two occasions he slapped on the face. The second time, he spat in her face and stamped on her phone, breaking it.

In December, he invited himself to her home at 3am, attacked her, taking her by the throat and causing her to “wheeze”, got her in a headlock and “ragged” her around, said Mr Newman.

She struggled and managed to get into the kitchen where she threw objects at him in self-defence. One of them hit him in the face. Starr then suddenly ran off.

Police found her in a distressed state and Starr was arrested.