A MAN slapped and strangled his partner in a “violent and frightening attack” before dragging her back into the house when she tried to flee.

James Price, 46 and of Birch Road in Bournemouth, attacked his girlfriend in her own home by headbutting, punching, slapping and throwing a vacuum cleaner at her.

Prosecutor, Robert Griffiths, told Bournemouth Crown Court on July 13, 2022, the pair received news about a medical condition the defendant had.

While the victim was on the phone to her mum, Price acted rudely towards her, so she continued her conversation downstairs.

A neighbour then asked the victim for help with their dog, but when she went to their house Price followed her and asked her what she was doing.

When the pair returned to the victim’s house the defendant said she did not care about his condition, and he began headbutting her.

When she tried to leave he would not let her, before she eventually escaped and fled to her car and drove away.

The defendant apologised over the phone and the woman returned home.

However, he then found out his dad’s partner had passed away and Price accused the woman of knowing this and keeping it from him.

When he calmed down, the couple went to Asda at Castlepoint to buy dinner but on the drive home Price drove ‘aggressively’.

After returning to her house, the woman went upstairs to watch TV and ‘get out of his way’, but he followed and began to sing loudly so she could not hear her programme.

Price commented that he was going to see his mum soon, despite his mother having died years ago.

The woman said he was not over his mum’s passing and the defendant slapped her across the face.

The victim attempted to defend her head with her arms, but Price continued to slap her several times.

He then pushed her to the bed and strangled her, making her gasp for air.

He continued his assault by picking up a hoover and throwing it at her.

The woman persuaded Price to go downstairs to see to the dog, when she attempted to make her escape.

However, when she got outside the defendant ran after her and dragged her back in.

He said: “If I go to prison I will kill you and all of your family.”

They returned to the bedroom and the woman waited for him to fall asleep before she fled to a friends house and called the police.

The woman was left with a lump on her head, a black eye, a bloodshot eye, marks on her neck and bruising to her arms and chest.

When he was arrested Price said: “She was slagging my mother off.”

The defendant previously spent 30 months in prison in 2003 for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He was then later sentenced for battery in 2018 over an attack of a previous partner.

Mitigating, Andrew Stone, commented the defendant stopped the strangulation ‘voluntarily’ and the incident was ‘relatively short lived’.

He said his client, who is a HGV driver, struggles to come to terms with his mother’s death years later.

Price sobbed in the dock as Mr Stone told the court how the victim was the ‘best relationship he had ever had’ and she was his best friend.

The defendant pleaded guilty on the day of trial to intentional strangulation and common assault.

Judge Susan Evans said: “It [the attack] may have been relatively short experience but it would have felt like a life time.

“Strangulation is a particularly violent and frightening means of attack where people genuinely believe they are going to die.”

Judge Evans sentenced Price to 21 months imprisonment suspended for two years, as well as 35 rehabilitation activity requirement days and a restraining order for the victim.