Bodybuilder gouged pregnant girlfriend’s eyes for ‘liking’ Facebook post

A bodybuilder smirked as he was sent down for gouging his pregnant girlfriend’s eyes for ‘liking’ a Facebook post.

Danny Bridges throttled, kneed and punched his ex before jamming his thumbs into her eyes.

Canterbury Crown Court heard how the serial woman beater beat his victim’s legs and kneed her in the spine as part of the gruesome attack in October last year.

In a police statement, the victim claimed Bridges got angry after she "loved" a male friend’s Facebook post.

Judge Rupert Lowe said: “I note for the record that you smile as I recount these facts.”

The bricklayer was convicted after a trial in May of false imprisonment and two counts of actual bodily harm.

It was said the 35-year-old had stopped friends and family seeing his then girlfriend’s black and blue face after the attack by imprisoning her.

But she texted a friend begging them to call 999, prompting police to storm Bridges' flat in Whitstable, Kent, last November.

 The judge said he was a danger to women (Photo: Facebook)

They discovered the victim in a bedroom with serious facial bruising.

Jailing him for nine years, Judge Rupert Lowe described Bridges was a “psychologically controlling” abuser and a potential danger to women.

He said: “You stuck your finger in her eyes turning her eye-lids inside out.

"She thought her eyes were going to pop out altogether. She was so frightened she thought she was going to die.

“You are just another violent abuser of women. You have not shown any sympathy or empathy to those closest to you.

“You are selfish, angry and violent.

“I have no hesitation in finding that you pose a significant risk of harm to future partners. It is impossible to tell if you are lying or living in an alternative reality.”

Bridges protested his innocence throughout the trial and claimed his victim’s injuries were caused by a string of implausible accidents.

His ex-partner also refused to accuse him of the violence during his trial, claiming her injuries came from falling and rough sex.

During cross-examination the woman claimed she fell down a flight of stairs, injuring her back before going back to bed.

She then claimed she got up, tripped over a table and then over a rug before hitting her face against a toilet seat.

 Danny Bridges told the judge he had been stitched up by the police (Photo: SWNS.COM)

Bridges also handed the judge a note protesting he’d been stitched up in an elaborate police conspiracy.

But a jury took less than an hour to find Bridges guilty.

At the sentencing hearing, an impact statement from his former girlfriend was read to the court in which she admits the attack happened.

She said: “With every punch I remember seeing white flashes in my eyes - he managed to stick his fingers in my eyes by this point.

“He somehow managed to peel the eyelids back and it turned inside out.

“It hurt so much I thought I was going to be sick, I thought my eye was going to pop out.

“He then told me he was going to kick the baby out of me.”

It was said Bridges has 13 previous violent convictions and 22 convictions in total.

The jury heard Bridges knocked his sister unconscious and assaulted his mum in 2002.

In 2013 he hit another girlfriend and in 2017 strangled another woman with a duvet, forced a spanner into her ribs and placed his knee over her windpipe.