A YOUNG woman has welcomed the four-year prison sentence handed to her former partner who subjected her to years of violence and abuse.

Dennis Moore stabbed girlfriend Sarah Holloway with a knife, hit her with a baseball bat, stubbed out cigarettes on her body and whipped her with a dog chain.

The attacks took place over a five-year period between January 2003 and July last year.

The violence only ended when a neighbour called police after hearing an assault taking place.

Officers entered the house by climbing through an upstairs window to find Miss Holloway cowering in a corner.

Moore, 28, of Flag Terrace, Sunniside, near Crook, County Durham, was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court yesterday after admitting assaulting, unlawfully wounding and putting Miss Holloway in fear of violence at an earlier hearing.

Miss Holloway, 21, who has three children to Moore, said she was pleased with the length of the sentence, adding: “He took my family and my friends away, and he took me out of myself – I used to be a bubbly person until I met him.”

She praised the Survivors of Domestic Abuse support group for its help, and urged anyone suffering similar abuse to call the police.

“If it wasn’t for the police coming to the house, I would still be in that relationship, but I’m now slowly getting my life back,” she added.

Detective Sergeant Jim Cunningham, of South Durham police domestic abuse investigation team, said the case had been one of the most harrowing he had worked on.

He said: “Sarah has been exceptionally brave.

“I would like to thank the anonymous caller who rang the police on that night.

“This sentence proves that the courts now take domestic abuse extremely seriously.”

Judge Brian Forster told Moore he had a “Jekyll and Hyde character”.

He said: “On the outside, you’re hard working and liked by people at work, but when you return home you’re abusive and violent.

“You used her as a punchbag, particularly when in drink.”

Chris Baker, mitigating, asked the judge to give his client credit for the guilty pleas.

He said: “He has a supportive family who have stood by him.

“His mother is extremely unwell and the defendant intends, once he has been released, to go and live with her to pay back some of that support.”