The Attorney General’s Office is seeking a court order to stop a man who says he hates women from hurting or threatening them because of their gender.

The injunction, typically used in cases of violent crimes based on race or religion, in this case targets Joshua Drew, 27, who is currently being held in Cumberland County Jail in Portland where he is serving an eight-month sentence.

Drew has a history of domestic violence assaults as well as acts of terrorizing women, crimes that occurred in Kennebec, Somerset and Androscoggin counties, according to a release from Attorney General William Schneider.

At one point last year, Drew was told to leave a women’s home and responded by choking the woman, kicking her in the head and killing her kitten, the release said.

The release quoted Drew as writing: “Is there really any question or wondering why I keep coming back to jail for the exact same thing? Domestic Assault. Why is it that every woman that comes near me finds a way to … me over?”

“Every last one of you does nothing but fuel my hatred and anger towards women,” he was quoted in the release. “I do not feel remorse and I am not sorry for the things I have done. My only regret is that I didn’t do worse to the women I assaulted.”

The Maine Civil Rights Act allows the Attorney General to obtain a civil injunction barring a person from committing violence or the threat of violence against someone based on race, color, religion, sex, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, and physical or mental disability. A violation of the injunction is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

The injunction sought against Drew in Androscoggin County Superior Court also would bar him from future contact with his prior victims, the release said.

“It is rare to have evidence of a civil rights violation motivated purely by bias against all women,” Schneider said. “The Civil Rights Act is one tool to stop violence against women based on this kind of seething hatred of women as an entire class of people.”