A BURGER van man has been jailed for repeatedly punching a girlfriend as she drove them home at 70mph on the M4 with two three-year-old children in the back.

Cardiff Crown Court heard the victim suffered a broken nose in the drunken attack, before Gareth Davies dragged her out of her car at a petrol station and continued the assault, which was captured on CCTV.

The 27-year-old from Usk then got into the driver’s seat despite her appeals for him to not drive, and then crashed the vehicle into a roadside hedge before trying to run off.

The court was told that Davies had drunk heavily at a truck show in Porthcawl last August, and when they headed home after midnight, he had accused his victim of talking to other men before attacking her as she drove.

After taking over the wheel, prosecutor Hannah Friedman said: “He began driving erratically close to the car in front and he then left the motorway at junction 34.”

With the children crying in the back seat, he lost control taking a bend and crashed into a hedge, she added.

He then jumped out and tried to run away, but was pinned to the ground by two members of the public.

When police arrived shortly after 2am, he gave a breath test reading of 79mg of alcohol - more than twice the limit of 35 - and also tested positive for cannabis.

Talking about the incident, one of the frightened children said “Maybe he will stop being mad.”

As well as the broken nose, their mother suffered injuries to her eye socket, temple, collarbone, arms and stomach.

Her victim impact statement said she had since suffered “constant flashbacks” and was desperate to move house to avoid him.

Ben Waters, defending, said Davies was “ashamed and appalled by his behaviour... which could have had much more serious consequences.”

He told the court Davies had become stressed over his burger van business on the A449 between Raglan and the Coldra, which often involved working seven day weeks, and had drunk heavily after abstaining from alcholhol for a period.

Davies was also sentenced for being in a breach of a suspended jail term from Februray 2022 last year for assualting a previous partner, crashing into a police car during a chase, discling private photos and possessing cannabis.

Jailing him for two years and banning him from contacting his ex for five years, Recorder Celia Hughes told him: “This was an appalling offence in front of two young children which went on for some time.

“You were lucky it did not result in serious injury to your family and other members of the public.”