A BULLYING boyfriend who attacked his stepdaughter and subjected her to four years of cruelty has been jailed.

Teesside Crown Court was told that Peter Jennison also encouraged the girl’s mother, Lucinda Smith, and other family members, to hit her with objects including a piece of wood and a litterpicker.

Jennison, 36, singled out the girl from his own three children and on one occasion pushed her over when she was wearing a plaster cast on a broken leg.

Sharon Elves, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said Jennison was also responsible for forcing her to sleep in the bathroom and eat a meal there because she “smelt”.

He also threw her against a wall during an argument with her mother, causing a black eye and bruising.

Ms Elves said Jennison would regularly prod her in the head and used verbal abuse to belittle her, calling her a “freak” and saying he “hated her guts”.

She said concern over the girl’s welfare had initially been raised by a teacher at her school, but events only came to a head when the girl ran away to her grandmother’s home, telling her: “I’m scared and my heart is breaking.”

The grandmother contacted social services and police arrested Jennison, who previously had been convicted of battery against the complainant.

Jennison, of Cargo Fleet Lane, Middlesbrough, had pleaded guilty to cruelty to a child over a four-year period.

His co-defendant Smith, 29, of College Road, Middlesbrough, was given a 15-month jail sentence at a previous hearing after also admitting cruelty.

Andrew Turton, for Jennison, referred to a report which said his learning difficulties, combined with an immaturity, meant he acted in a way without thought of the consequences.

Mr Turton said the “penny had dropped” for him and he was extremely remorseful.

He added: “He is a man who has a number of issues in areas of his life still to deal with.”

Jailing him for two years nine months, Judge Peter Bowers said the impact of his behaviour on the girl, which caused her to run away, had been devastating.

After the case, acting Detective Sergeant Rachael Forbes, of Cleveland Police’s child abuse investigation unit based in Middlesbrough, said she was satisfied with the sentence.

She said: “It reflects the seriousness of the offence.

Society is sickened by this sort of behaviour, and the court has sent a clear message that it is not acceptable.”