A woman has spoken out about the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of an abusive boyfriend during the lockdown.

Paul Richards-Keegan beat his girlfriend, spat on her, and threatened her with a machete. Seren ended the two-year relationship in August after she was taken to hospital.

The 31-year-old’s neighbors alerted the police when they saw Richards-Keegan push her face against a fence, punch her repeatedly.

After pleading guilty to several charges, Richards-Keegan, 24, was jailed and given a 10-year restraining order.

Although Seren is relieved that he was jailed she thinks her mental scars will take a long time to heal. Swansea Crown Court heard the couple’s relationship was amazing during the first five months after they started dating in July 2018.

But Richards-Keegan then began a serious pattern of violence which Seren started to record with photographs in January.

Seren suffered a pattern of serious violence against her which escalated through the lockdown period of the pandemic. On May 30, after a disagreement about selling his motorbike, Richards-Keegan grabbed Seren’s face and pushed her against a wall, beating her until her mouth was full of blood.

He later hit Seren so hard he left a handprint on her lower back. A month later Richards-Keegan strangled Seren while she tried to run out of the house to get help, leaving her with visible marks on her neck.

Seren tried again to leave in August but her boyfriend threatened her with a machete.

Despite the serious threats of violence, Seren worked up the courage to leave her boyfriend on August 22. Richards-Keegan pleaded guilty to four counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault, criminal damage, attempting to pervert the course of justice, and making threats to kill when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.

Richards-Keegan, from Pwllclai, Capel Bangor, Aberystwyth, will serve up to half of his sentence in custody before being released on the license to serve the remainder in the community.

The restraining order against him bans him from contacting Seren from Cardiff for ten years.