A MAN launched a repeated violent attack on a woman at her Kendal home, punching her in the face before saying: “I will kill you.”

David Grocer, a 41-year-old convicted sex offender, admitted a total of five crimes when he appeared at Carlisle Crown Court over a video link from custody.

Grocer admitted assaulting the woman, causing her actual bodily harm, following an incident at her home in the south of Kendal on August 28.

He also pleaded guilty to assaulting both her and a male neighbour by beating during incidents 10 days later.

Grocer further admitted two failures to comply with sex offender notification requirements between July 31 and September 8. One failure was committed by staying for more than 12 hours at an address in which there was a person aged under 18, and a second by staying there for more than seven days without notifying the police.

The woman described how Grocer had picked up a blade.

“He never came towards me with the knife but just held it in the air to intimidate me," she said. I felt really scared. He put the knife down and he then punched me three times to the face.”

Prosecutor Gerard Rogerson said it had been a “repeated assault” in two stages. “She tried to leave the premises. Mr Grocer prevented her from leaving by jamming her arm in the door causing bruising to her upper arm,” he told the court.

Grocer also stated “I will kill you”, although Mr Rogerson stressed that was not the subject of any further charge. “She does not say she believed he would carry out that threat. Indeed the evidence is once he apologised she travelled to Birmingham with him voluntarily,” said the prosecutor.

Grocer, latterly of Wellington Street South, West Bromwich, had indicated a wish to be sentenced immediately.

But the judge, Recorder Katherine Pierpoint, adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report to be prepared. This will assess the potential risks and dangerousness posed by Grocer, who was remanded in custody and is set to be punished on November 12.

"You will appreciate, at the forefront of the court’s mind is likely to be an immediate custodial sentence,” he said.