A FLINTSHIRE man has been jailed after he attacked a former girlfriend with his teeth, leaving her needing 30 stitches to her face.

James Thomas Wilkinson was imprisoned for six years and must serve a further two years on licence, following the “frenzied” assault on Alana Edwards, which took place at the Ruthin Castle Hotel on Valentines Day.

Appearing at Mold Crown Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding with intent on May 23, Wilkinson, of Nant Y Gro, Gronant, listened as Mark Connor, prosecuting, described how Ms Edwards was left with permanent facial scarring to her lip and nose after the 35-year-old repeatedly bit her outside her hotel room.

The court heard how Wilkinson and Ms Edwards had been together for two years before the relationship ended at Christmas 2018.

The pair had remained friends however, and booked a room at the Ruthin Castle Hotel on Valentine’s Day.

On the day, the couple went drinking in Denbigh town centre before returning to the hotel where eye witnesses described them as appearing intoxicated and Wilkinson, who had drunk around eight pints of lager, behaving like he was on drugs.

Despite have booked the one room, Ms Edwards then asked or was advised by the hotel’s night porter to take a separate room.

She was given a new room close to their original room, but after going there she heard a voice outside and after opening to the door to Wilkinson he attacked her.

Mr Connor described how Wilkinson clamped his teeth on her lips and bottom of her nose leaving “blood all over her face”.

Another couple staying at the hotel heard Ms Edwards screaming and came to her aid, finding Wilkinson on top of her, before he left the scene “walking away calmly”.

Judge Rhys Rowlands was handed a letter in court written by Ms Edwards in which she claimed his behaviour was “out of character”.

However the court then heard Wilkinson had a number of previous convictions and jail terms for violence, including an incident in 2011 where he and an accomplice had attacked a victim in his own home with a vase and a glass and another in 2014 where he had smashed an ex-partner’s head against a wall so hard it had gone through the plasterboard.

Judge Rowlands added: “What is going through someone’s mind when they clamp their teeth on someone’s lip and nose. He (Wilkinson) is a violent individual, both to men and partners.”

Simon Killeen, defending, said Wilkinson was “genuinely remorseful” adding he had been a “model prisoner” during his previous periods inside jail.

“He knows he will receive a significant custodial sentence and he knows he deserves it,” said Mr Killeen. “These issues are created by the catalyst of alcohol and he has struggled over the years to deal with that. It is when he has consumed alcohol that he has carried out these violent offences and he is now doing everything he can to remedy this.

“He has lost the woman he loves forever due to his appalling behaviour.”

Sentencing Wilkinson, Judge Rowlands said: “This is a deeply serious offence and a senseless and particularly vicious assault.

“You cannot drink without seemingly losing your temper and this was a devastating loss of control in drink on your part.”

He added he posed “a significant risk of causing serious harm to others.”