A teenage girl was left with a fractured skull and permanent brain damage after her boyfriend battered her to within an inch of her life.

Megan McPartlin, 18, was attacked by her controlling ex Aaron Worthington, 23.

They were celebrating New Year’s Eve at their home in Chorley, Lancashire, England, when he knocked Megan unconscious and punched her until she was barely alive.

Megan couldn’t walk after the attack.

She also suffered three brain injuries, fractures to her right eye and face and a bleed on the brain.

It took surgeons five hours to remove pieces of her broken skull from her brain and replace it with a metal plate, saving her life.

Seven months has passed since the attack but Megan says she is still in pain and can feel the metal screws placed in her head.

Girl, 18, battered by boyfriend is left permanently brain damaged as bits of her skull became wedged in her brain

Megan is speaking out now to give hope to victims of abuse and let them know there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Aaron was jailed for 27 months at Preston Crown Court last month after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm (GBH) without intent.

He was convicted of a Section 20 offence, which carries the lowest maximum sentence of the two GBH charges.

Megan slammed the sentence as "pathetic" and fears he will be let out as soon as next year, although the Crown Prosecution Service could not confirm this.

Remembering the brutal attack at their home, told MetroUK: "It was 5am on New Year’s Day and we’d been drinking.

He hit me once and I kicked him. He hit me again and it all went black. Then I woke up and he wouldn’t get me an ambulance, he was calling me 'dramatic'.

"Then my neighbour came round and called one. It turned out I had a bleed on the brain and had hours on my life."

Worthington was arrested after Megan’s family phoned the police from her bedside in hospital.

Girl, 18, battered by boyfriend is left permanently brain damaged as bits of her skull became wedged in her brain

Reacting to the light sentence her abuser got, Megan said: "The justice system is an absolute joke. I don’t know why there is one. People get sent down for drugs for God knows how long and somebody who nearly killed an 18-year-old girl from three brain injuries has got this sentence. It’s pathetic.

"What if I had died? It’s like my life is only worth a couple of months."

Megan says her brain injuries affect "every aspect" of her life and she listed all the ways she her life has been permanently affected.

Girl, 18, battered by boyfriend is left permanently brain damaged as bits of her skull became wedged in her brain

Megan met Aaron when she was 16. They were in a relationship for two and a half years. It didn’t start out violent but within a year, he started smacking her. From there, he graduated to punching her. She said she now knows he was manipulating her, but she felt "trapped" at the time. She said she cried every day while in the relationship and lost her confidence.

She said: "I did threaten to leave many times but he was having none of it. He threw my bags, broke my things and stood at the door so I couldn’t go. But I didn’t really want to go, I was completely smitten by him. No matter what he did, he was always in the right and I was in the wrong. That’s how he made me feel. Everything I did was wrong. But it was really him."

Megan hopes to inspire other victims to speak up and escape abusive relationships.