A man who punched his former partner in the face and tried to strangle her after she caught him having sex with another woman in a disabled toilet has been jailed for two years.

The victim of the attack had obtained a key to the disabled toilet at Bury St Edmunds bus station from staff and when she opened the door she saw Herman Crouch having sex with a woman, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

James Nash, prosecuting, said Crouch and the victim had been in a relationship which had ended six or seven months earlier.

However, there had been letters and telephone calls discussing the prospect of a reconciliation.

After finding 59-year-old Crouch in the toilet, the victim was pushed away by the woman who was in the toilet with him and there was then an altercation between all three of them.

Crouch had then said: “This is what a broken nose feels like” before punching her on the bridge of the nose causing a displaced fracture of the nasal bone.

He had then placed his hands round her neck and applied pressure which made it difficult for her to breathe, said Mr Nash.

The victim had called 999 but all the operator could hear was a man and a woman shouting.

Footage of the incident, captured on CCTV, was played to the court.

The court heard the assault took place five days after Crouch had been released from custody for an earlier assault on the victim.

In an impact statement, the victim said she felt mentally and physically betrayed by Crouch but said she still loved him.

She had difficulty sleeping because she kept remembering him saying: “This is what a broken nose feels like.”

Crouch, of no fixed address, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm to the victim on March 22 this year and in addition to being jailed for two years, he was banned from contacting her for five years.

Sentencing him, Judge Emma Peters said she didn’t accept his claim that he had been in the army as he was unable to give basic details about his service.

Natasha Nair, for Crouch, described the seven-year relationship between the defendant and the victim of the assault as “toxic”.

She said Crouch had been in a relationship with the woman he was having sex with in the toilet but this had also now ended.

Miss Nair said Crouch didn’t want to have any further contact with either of the women.