A drug-fuelled man put his former partner through a prolonged ordeal of violence, twice temporarily preventing her from breathing and also banging her head off wall tiles.

Durham Crown Court heard Christopher Carr’s outburst came after he had drunk two cans of lager and taken a line of cocaine.

It was his latest unannounced visit to her home in Stanley in breach of an arrangement over him attending the premises.

He loudly complained about the restrictive nature of the permitted visits and was told to quieten down.

Rachel Brown, prosecuting, said this rebuke sparked a violent reaction, as Carr dragged his ex-partner to the floor, placing a hand round her neck, which he grabbed.

He then picked her up by her hair and banged her head off the wall, demonstrating such anger that he was spitting in the fearful woman’s face.

Miss Brown said the victim repeatedly asked him to stop, but he responded by punching her to the side of the face and when she turned away, to the back of her head.

She managed to get up and temporarily leave the house, but Carr remained inside, where he was heard on the phone to his mother threatening to “stab up” his ex-partner and her father, if he came over, as she had claimed to try to scare him off.

When the attack victim came back into the house Carr grabbed a knife, approaching her saying he would kill her, following her to the doorway as she retreated.

He then threw both the knife and her phone from the door, enabling her to call the police.

Miss Brown described the incident as, “prolonged and persistent”, lasting about an hour.

The injured woman was left with bruises and bumps to the head, plus bruising to her arms and round her body.

She told police prior to the incident, on June 25, he had been turning up at her home without warning despite being told not to, leading her to sometimes close the curtains, pretending to be out at the time as she was scared of him.

When he was arrested and interviewed he admitted having consumed two cans of lager and the line of cocaine before going to her house.

Carr, 27, of Wear Road, Stanley, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm, making threats with an offensive weapon and non-fatal strangulation, constituting a battery.

Read more: Man pushed woman over in row at her Darlington home

Jennifer Coxon, in mitigation, conceded her client’s probation report, “does not read well”, accepting he, “needs to do work with domestic violence charities.”

She said his reaction that day was, “somewhat extreme, given he’s not someone with a long record, at the age of 27.

“He says there’s something in him that’s not quite right.

“He uses alcohol and drugs to deal with stress.”

She said he had previously worked until he suffered an injury and then became depressed, causing him to turn to alcohol and cocaine.

Judge James Adkin said the use of strangulation, in whatever form, is, “a highly dangerous act which risks serious harm, or even death, leading, in this case, to psychological damage to the complainant, who feared she would suffer serious injury or death.”

He imposed a 20-month prison sentence and said it must be immediate, adding that the incident highlighted the dangers of intoxication by cocaine.

The judge also put in place a restraining order, preventing Carr from contacting or approaching his ex-partner for five years.

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