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WARNING - story contains graphic images

Tangled in a web of jealousy Lindsey Pringle was beaten black and blue, left with a broken spine, shattered teeth, permanent eye damage and horrific memories she can’t shake off.

Now she has broken her silence as she rebuilds her life while her bully ex-boyfriend starts a two-and-a-half year jail sentence.

Curtis Storey, 21, launched a ferocious attack on Lindsey in her bathroom after seeing her on a night out in town when he claimed she said she was staying in.

And six months on, Lindsey still walks with a crutch, sees black shadows on one eye and is keeping her fingers crossed her back heals correctly.

“He used to say ‘I’ll kill you’ all the time but I thought he was on that night,” said 5ft 2in Lindsey, who weighs just six stone.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how the mum-of-one, who suffers from osteoporosis, was punched unconscious and suffered multiple spinal fractures after toppling backwards into a bath as Storey laid into her.

Lindsey, who also suffered cracked teeth and damage to her eye, was in hospital for a total of five weeks as she lay flat in bed.

But the 36-year-old was left needing crutches to walk around and fears the damage to her retina may mean she can never drive again.

“I loved Curtis and I think he loved me too much but he showed it in the wrong way,” she said.

“I never wanted this to happen or for him to get jail but if I was looking at it from someone else’s point of view, he should have got five or six years behind bars.”

The pair started a relationship after Curtis smiled and waved to Lindsey in the street. He messaged her on Facebook and the pair started a relationship.

“He asked for us to meet up. At first I didn’t want to because of the age difference but we ended up together. I really liked him and everyone said how lovely he was. He was really quiet at first, but he changed,” said Lindsey.

And, after only weeks, loving Storey turned into a jealous monster as he became controlling and violent after dragging Lindsey out of a house by her hair and then smashing her car window.

Over the following months the pair had an on-off relationship as Storey’s temper continued to flare out of control. But Lindsey confesses to repeatedly taking him back.

In other arguments he had bit her face and nose and at the time of the last attack he was already on a community order after stabbing Lindsey in the neck with a car key during an earlier row.

She added: “I was out in town with three friends when we saw him in a bar... he was mortal drunk and he told me to get outside.”

Lindsey says Storey punched her in the jaw as an argument spiralled and he was knocked to the floor by a doorman. And after getting into a taxi together Lindsey’s worst nightmare was about to start.

Lindsey messaged a friend when she went into her bathroom and Storey snatched her phone.

“He smashed me in the side of the face and broke three teeth. He hit me again and broke another three teeth on the other side. I blacked out and I woke up on my back in the bath. I was in so much pain but the adrenalin got me up. My face was killing me, my eye was black and he put a hole in my retina. I spat out bits of teeth in the sink. My back was in so much pain but we went down stairs together but he locked the front door. He was shouting he was going to kill me and I ran to the back door.”

Lindsey, of Walker, Newcastle, managed to escape and a neighbour rang the police. At hospital a scan revealed she had fractured her back in five places.

Lindsey, who also suffers from Crohn’s disease, joint hypermobility syndrome and arthritis, added: “I have permanent damage to my eye and can see black shadows, I have nerve damage in my face and the tops of my gums. My back is healing but because I have osteoporosis they don’t know if my back will fully get better, I just hope it will. I’m still on strong painkillers and walk with one crutch.”

Storey, of Branxton Crescent, Walker, Newcastle, who admitted causing grievous bodily harm on August 24, was also made the subject of a lifelong restraining order prohibiting any further contact with his victim.

The court also heard he has a previous conviction for harassment of another partner.

Lindsey, whose 13-year-old son is autistic, said: “I don’t know if I will ever have another boyfriend again. I want to live my life how I want and not have to explain to someone what I can and can’t do.”