The violent 26-year-old then attacked the boy’s mum, raining punches on her face and dragging her down the stairs by the hair.

And when her nine-year-old daughter asked him to ‘leave mummy alone,’ he turned on her. He hit her in the face leaving her with blood coming from her nose and mouth and knocking out a wobbly tooth.

Warner flipped when the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, put her head around the door as he played computer games with one of her older children.

He shouted back: “I know what you think: you think I am a nonce and I am going to rape your kids”, Swindon Crown Court was told.

Simon Goodman, prosecuting, said: “He thought she was checking up on him. It was nothing of the sort. He accused her of being worse than a social worker.”

After shouting: “I’m going to have you: end up killing you”, he went out of the room and returned holding the child upside down by his ankle.

Mr Goodman said the mum’s statement to the police graphically describes him holding the lad ‘like the way a chicken is held: upside down by the legs’.

He said: “He said, ‘You think I am violent, I will be if you want me to be’. He smacked him hard on the bottom two to three times over his nappy.

“The hits were carried out by an open palm. The force caused him to swing each time he was hit. He then dropped him on the bed.”

Warner then turned on the woman, punching her five times to the head, leaving her cowering on the bed with her little boy.

He then grabbed her by the hair, punched her forehead and was verbally abusive, dragging her out of the room, down the stairs then throwing her to the floor.

Warner then broke down saying he wanted to go to prison, because he was a risk to others and himself. He urged her to call the police but when she tried to leave the house in West Swindon, in March last year, he attacked her again and threw her to the sofa.

Mr Goodman said her nine-year-old daughter saw what was happening and asked him to leave her mum alone.

Warner said: “What are you going to do?” before telling her to “Shut your mouth” and “Keep out of it”, before hitting her, causing blood to come from her nose and mouth.

As she ran upstairs sobbing, he stopped her mum, who had a split lip and bruising, from leaving the living room to comfort her.

Warner, who gave the court his father’s address in Newport, Gwent, pleaded guilty to two counts of actual bodily harm, common assault and criminal damage.

The court heard he had a lengthy criminal record with previous convictions for actual bodily harm, criminal damage and other matters.

Jailing him for 27 months, Judge Euan Ambrose said: “You were holding the boy, aged just three, and as described by his mother you were holding him upside down… you smacked him two to three times hard over the nappy to the bottom. The force of those caused him to swing to and fro.

“You then moved across to assault his mum. Her daughter aged nine came to her assistance to ask you to stop. For her troubles you shouted and swore at her then you hit her to the face giving her a bloodied nose and knocking out a tooth, which was already wobbly.

“There are a number of aggravating features here. There were multiple victims, all vulnerable… The mum was vulnerable as she was in the presence of her children, she could not run away and abandon her children. The children were vulnerable by dint of their age.”

As well as jailing him he also imposed a restraining order banning him from contacting the woman or her children for five years.