A violent man who a judge described as a danger to women was jailed for 27 months yesterday.

Mark Dunford, 37, who has seven children to three women, now has convictions for violence on his former wife and two girlfriends, said Judge David Bryant.

Ian West, prosecuting, said that Dunford punched Maria O'Neill in the face several times at their flat, in Ruby Street, Saltburn, east Cleveland, on July 30 last year.

He was arrested and released on bail on condition that he stayed away from her. However, on September 17 when Miss O'Neill left a shop, Dunford grabbed her by the hair and dragged her through the streets towards his own flat.

He said that he was going to drown her in the nearby boating lake, but then he pulled out a ten-inch kitchen knife threatening to slit her throat.

Richard Bennett, defending, said that Miss O'Neill has pursued Dunford wanting to resume their relationship, hounding him through his family and his work.

In one letter she wrote: "You will never get rid of me, you would have to kill me and I would still come back to you".

Dunford, of Newcomen Terrace, Redcar, who pleaded guilty to common assault, actual bodily harm assault and affray, was jailed for 27 months, including 12 months left from a previous sentence for making threats to kill a fourth woman.