A man jumped out a lone woman and dragged her to an underpass before viciously assaulting her, a court has heard.

Harrison Foster, aged 32, of Hartigan Road, Bolton, had been in an often "toxic and volatile" relationship with his victim before the devastating attack took place on Bradford Street on March 28 this year.

Seeing his victim walking alone, Foster jumped over some railings and dragged her to a nearby underpass where punched, kicked and at one point bit her before he pinned her down and started to strangle her.

Alaric Bassano, prosecuting, said: “He asked her menacingly, what tree do you want to be buried under?”

The victim eventually managed to break free and flee to a nearby Urban Outreach centre.

Mr Bassano told the court that outreach officer Alan Holt, who has known the victim for around ten years, said he had never seen her look so terrified.

He also reported that Mr Holt said that Foster, who has 54 previous convictions for 87 offences appeared all the more terrifying given his apparent calm as he was chasing her.

Mr Holt said: “He was frightening but his features didn’t seem to change.”

Mr Bassano played CCTV footage of Foster dragging the woman to the underpass and then steadily pursuing her as she fled.

The woman was safely allowed inside the Urban Outreach centre while Foster was kept outside.

He was arrested the next day and, according to Mr Bassano, tried to "downplay his conduct" but eventually pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm at a pre-trial preparation hearing on May 4.

A witness statement from the victim, read out by Mr Bassano said: “This has terrified me.

“He tells me that if he ever gets released from prison he will find me, I don’t know what to do.”

Abigail Henry, defending, admitted that custody was inevitable in this case but argued that Foster accepted that he had problems with drug and alcohol use, particularly with a variety of high potency cocaine known on the streets as "fish".

He had also been using his time on remand working in the prison workshop at HMP Forest Bank.

She added that he had been testing negative for drug use since he had been in custody.

At Bolton Crown Court, Judge Tom Gilbart acknowldged to Foster, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, that he "undoubtedly had a difficult time in your formative years", hearing how has father had left home when he was aged three and he had been taken into care before he was even a teenager.

But Judge Gilbart described Foster’s assault, his biting in particular, as "animalistic" and pointed out that he brought with him "a long and poor record of violence" while his victim had been "terrified".

He said: "This was a sustained, unpleasant assault on a lone woman."

Judge Gilbart sentenced Foster to 23 months in prison and hit him with a restraining order forbidding him from contacting his victim in any way or going near her for five years.