Man who killed girlfriend jailed after hitting new partner with 10kg dumbbell

A man who killed his girlfriend 14 years ago has been jailed again after assaulting his new partner with a 10kg dumbbell.

Jason Griffiths, 46, served a three-year prison sentence after being found guilty of the manslaughter of his then girlfriend Julie Freeman, 29, in 2005.

In his most recent attack, Griffiths viciously attacked his girlfriend, who has not been named, at their home.

He hit her with a 10kg dumbbell, threw a wooden box at her and whipped her with a belt at their home, last November.

Griffiths received an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, in June.

Now the convicted killer has admitted breaching the terms of his suspended sentence by failing to attend supervision sessions on July 31 and August 8.

Adam Watkins, mitigating, told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court that his client, of no fixed address, had been living in a shed.

But Judge David Fletcher told Griffiths his excuse was not good enough, adding: ‘I am not impressed by your explanations.’

Ms Freeman, from Bentilee, in Stoke-on-Trent, died after Griffiths, kneed and slapped her in an alleyway in Longton.

It was found that the mother-of-two died from a ‘crushing injury’ to her chest.

Griffiths was cleared of murder by a jury but convicted of manslaughter and received a three-year prison sentence in 2006.

A court was previously told that Griffiths had a ‘pattern of behaviour’ involving violence against girlfriends.