A Winnipeg man who beat his girlfriend with a metal bar when she was too slow heating up his soup has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Langford Hornbrook offered little in the way of apology to the victim, who was present in court for his sentencing hearing Wednesday.

"I'm sorry for what happened," Hornbrook said simply. "I just want to put this behind me."

Hornbrook, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault for the May 10, 2014 attack.

Court heard Hornbrook was drinking in the kitchen of his girlfriend's McKenzie Street home while she stood at the stove heating up some soup.

"Mr. Hornbrook got impatient for the soup, came up from behind and pushed her and then hit her in the head with what she thought was a pot," Crown attorney Alanna Littman told court.

The woman threw the pot of soup at Hornbrook and attempted to escape before Hornbrook wrestled her to the floor, bit her arm and beat her about the head and body with a metal bar.

"Throughout the attack, he tells her he is going to kill her," Littman said.

The woman hit Hornbrook with a frying pan and then crawled to the home of a neighbour who called 911.

The woman was taken to hospital in critical condition and released two days later.

Hornbrook and the victim had been dating for six months at the time of the assault. Court was told of no prior incidents of domestic violence.

The three-year sentence was jointly recommended by the Crown and defence. "Cases of this sort involving domestic violence ... demand a penitentiary sentence," Littman said.

Defence lawyer Todd Bourcier said it was his client's position that both Hornbrook and the victim had been drinking prior to the assault.

"It seems to have erupted from a fairly minor argument at the beginning that went well beyond that," Bourcier said. "It's Mr. Hornbrook's recollection this was, to some extent at the beginning, a consensual fight, a consensual argument between them, that Mr. Hornbrook took many steps too far and lost his temper."

Judge Tim Killeen credited Hornbrook for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to just over 21 months.

dean.pritchard@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @deanatwpgsun