A Suffolk man who helped smuggle an illegal immigrant into the UK in the back of a van and carried out a “frenzied” attack on his partner has been jailed for 28 months.

Sentencing 31-year-old Elliott Thompson, Recorder Sarah Przybylska accepted that he had been duped into driving a van with a specially converted compartment to Calais and hadn’t been present when the illegal immigrant was loaded into the vehicle.

However, she said that when Elliott became aware of what was going in he had continued the journey and hadn’t alerted the authorities.

Thompson, of Bluebell Ave, Bury St Edmunds, admitted assisting in the unlawful immigration of an Albanian national in October 2019 and a separate offence of unlawful wounding in April last year.

He was jailed for 22 months for the unlawful wounding charge with six months to run consecutively for the unlawful immigration offence.

Wayne Cleaver, prosecuting, said the unlawful wounding offence related to a “frenzied” attack on his partner after he had been drinking at her home in Bury St Edmunds.

During the assault, he had repeatedly hit her in the face, put his hands around her throat as if to choke her, bit her arm, dug his nails into her arm, while laughing as if he was enjoying what he was doing.

Also before the court was John Lockwood, 32, of Mill Close, Trimley St Martin who had denied assisting in the unlawful immigration of an Albanian national between October 14 and 17, 2019, by arranging with others for him to hide in the back of a van on a P&O ferry at Dover but was found guilty after a trial in June.

He was given a 20-month jail term suspended for 18 months, 300 hours of unpaid work and a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

During his trial Lockwood said he and his co-defendant Richard Halls had travelled to France to pick up alcohol for a bar in Ipswich and he had no knowledge of the plan to smuggle the illegal immigrant into the UK.

He denied that he was lying about his involvement in the plan and that he had been part of a team which had organised the attempted smuggling.

Halls, 39, of St Andrews Place, Melton, has admitted assisting unlawful immigration and will be sentenced next Monday.

Three other men also admitted the charge and at an earlier hearing were jailed for ten months to run consecutively to jail terms for drug offences.