Woman forced to smash window to escape two-hour brutal assault as vile abuser makes chilling six-word threat
A woman feared she would die or have to kill her partner during a violent two-hour ordeal where he attacked her.
Judge Sophie McKone told Bradford Crown Court on Wednesday Halifax man Scott Mitchell had been jealous and used violence to control his victim who "must have been terrified" during the drink-fuelled attack earlier this year.
The assault in February was said to have been the culmination of a series of incidents over the preceding months during which Mitchell, 38, had fractured the complainant’s finger, bust her lip, punched her and hit her over the back of the head with a vodka bottle.
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Referring to the assault in February, Judge McKone said the victim felt she would have had to kill Mitchell to protect herself or he would kill her. It was said the woman tried to lock herself in a bathroom but Mitchell managed to get in and when he followed her into the bedroom he stamped on her head and strangled her so she could not breathe.
Prosecutor Anthony Moore said the woman said she wouldn’t go to the police if Mitchell let her go, but he responded by threatening: ”No, this is how it ends.”
The court heard the woman suffered a bad cut to her foot as she tried to escape through a smashed window, but after Mitchell left the property she was helped by delivery men who turned up at the house. She had suffered injuries to her eye socket, her cheekbone and her ankle.
Mitchell, of West Street, Halifax, was arrested the next day and at his trial in July he entered guilty pleas to charges of assault, engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour and intentional strangulation.
Judge McKone jailed him for 37 months and imposed a five-year restraining order which bans him from contacting the complainant. She said Mitchell had been drinking for days before the assault, but that was not an excuse for how he behaved.
The judge noted that Mitchell had a previous conviction for stalking another complainant and he had received a suspended jail sentence for that offence.
Referring to the victim’s personal statement the judge said the woman did not think she would ever recover mentally. She said she was now scared of getting into another relationship in case it happened again.