‘HE HAD EVIL IN HIS EYES’: TERROR OF THIRD GIRLFRIEND BRUTALLY BEATEN BY CONTROLLING THUG SOL PHILPOTT
She also revealed how the harrowing ordeal he inflicted on her led to her losing her unborn child and fearing she would die.During one particularly nasty attack in the street in which he sinisterly told her he "did not mind" going to prison, the screaming and terrified victim was ignored by passersby.
Having had the courage to report the 27-year-old to police, she sat within feet of him at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday to witness his own prophetic words come true.
But the bully - who also brutally beat two previous girlfriends - could be seen smiling as he left the dock for the cells.
He was jailed for three years and two months.
However, due to time served on remand, he is likely to be out within a year.
It is not the first time that Philpott, formerly of Canterbury, has landed himself behind bars for domestic violence.
With regards to his latest offending, the court heard that the verbal, physical and psychological abuse spanned 14 months of their relationship.
It included Philpott twice strangling the victim - once to the extent her lips turned blue - deliberately trapping her wrist in a door, biting her face and repeatedly striking her with a shoe.
He even told her by doing so, it would "look better in court".
The devastating effect of his brutality led to her dropping out of university, suffering a miscarriage and believing she would be killed.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, she said: "It never started as violence.
It started when he began to tell me what to think, what to believe, how to feel.
"Saying something just to be corrected, expressing a thought just to be shut down.
"Sadly, my reality wasn't my own and that's how it started, slowly doubting myself." The woman, who was recovering from illness, said Philpott also took advantage of her vulnerabilities in terms of physical and mental health.
"Very quickly on in the relationship, I became isolated from everyone.
Sadly, I had no friends, didn't leave the house and relied on Sol," she continued.
"Sol wanted that.
He wanted me to have no one.
He manipulated me and wanted me to depend on him.
"Very early on I was made to feel I needed Sol's approval to do anything.
I now find it very hard to make any decisions of my own." The young woman told how she barely left the house and “hit rock bottom”.
She said: "Sol trained me to walk on eggshells around him.
I used to rehearse things before saying them so it didn't set him off.
Even honesty felt dangerous around him.
"My boundaries slowly disappeared - little pieces of myself gone.
I'm mentally exhausted...
I was tortured, controlled and manipulated." The woman also described how she could no longer visit places where she had been abused by him, and has been left with "anxiety that no medication can ever cure and memories I can't forget".
"I still remember looking into Sol's eyes as he strangled me and saw evil," she added.
"I can never explain the gut-wrenching feeling of being terrified by the hands of the man I loved." She also bravely addressed Philpott in her statement, expressing how she hoped he could "one day make peace" with what he had done.
But she said: "I can forgive the unforgiveable but I can never forget what you did to me.
I have never felt the depths of depression until I hoped I would never wake up again.
I looked in the mirror and didn't recognise myself anymore.
He would go to extreme lengths to cause me pain and watch me suffer.
The more he lost control, the more desperate he became.
I truly believe if I had stayed any longer he would have killed me."
