Yellowknife (May 07/04) - A Yellowknife man who punched his pregnant girlfriend, pushed her down a flight of stairs and dragged her around by the hair has been sentenced to 14 months in jail.

"Even animals don't do this to each other," said Chief Judge Michel Bourassa.

"It's ugly human behaviour. Ugly, ugly."

The woman, four-and-a-half months pregnant at the time of the attack, suffered lacerations to her face and knees, but the unborn child wasn't injured.

Her 22-year-old attacker pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm, Wednesday, the day he was to stand trial on the charge in territorial court.

Bourassa's sentence exceeded the recommendation of Crown prosecutor Sandra Aitken, who was looking for something in the range of nine to 12 months.

The man's record -- which included a February conviction for assaulting the same woman -- and the savage nature of the attack merited a stiff sentence, said Bourassa.

"(This victim) was lucky she wasn't more seriously injured," he said.

Aitken told the court the man and his girlfriend began arguing outside of a Rat Lake apartment complex on the evening of April 3, 2004.

The man, who had been drinking heavily that night, became upset with his girlfriend after she asked him to leave her apartment.

When she turned to go inside, he grabbed her by the arm and pushed her to the ground. She got up and he pushed her again, this time down a flight of five or six stairs.

The man then grabbed her by the hair and began dragging her along the pavement before stopping to punch her several times in the face.

Witnesses pulled man away

Two witnesses saw the assault and pulled the man away, but not before the woman suffered several cuts to her face and knees.

The man's lawyer, James Mahon, said his client "was overwrought" with guilt and sincerely regretted attacking the soon-to-be mother of his child.

But Bourassa was unmoved.

"This court is faced yet again with a drunk who assaults a (spouse). The rate of domestic abuse in the NWT is numbing, astounding... and depressing."