A YOUNG woman has spoken of the terrifying moment a masked man held her at knifepoint in her own bedroom and threatened to slit her throat.

After seeing her tormentor Yussef Shola Yussef jailed for four years, Nicole McAvoy, 21, said: “I thought he was going to kill me, especially when he put his fingers in my mouth and covered my nose. I was gagging for breath.”

Unknown to Miss McAvoy, Yussef, 26, had travelled to her Charminster home in Bournemouth from London with Jerome Harris who had befriended her after they exchanged phone and internet messages.

Yussef from Northolt, Middlesex and Harris, 25, from Wembley, Middlesex, who was jailed for two years, admitted assault, causing actual bodily harm, on June 1 this year. Yussef also pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon.

Prosecuting at Bournemouth Crown Court, Roderick Blain said Miss McAvoy had met Harris on May 18 when he had spent the night at her home.

“When he arrived on the afternoon of June 1 he said he had travelled by bus and then got a taxi.”

But Miss McAvoy noticed another man sitting in a car outside her home and Harris told her he was a friend.

Mr Blain added: “She was sitting on the bed when she became aware that the second male was standing over her, wearing black woollen gloves with a stocking over his face. He had a knife and held it against her throat.

“He told her to get on her stomach and told Mr Harris to do her legs. She heard tape being unravelled and kicked out. Miss McAvoy tried to make a run for it but was forced back on the bed.”

Yussef threatened to suffocate Miss McAvoy in the mattress before yelling: ‘Stop moving or I’ll slit your throat.’ He told his accomplice to “do her mouth” and Miss McAvoy was punched in the face. Yussef and Harris fled after her mother arrived home.

The court heard how Miss McAvoy’s screams had been heard by neighbours and her injuries had included “a lump on the head,” a cut lip, bruising and a mark to her neck.

Yussef and Harris were arrested after being stopped by police on the M3 near Winchester. A lock knife was recovered from their car’s glove compartment.

In Harris’s defence, the court heard that he had no previous convictions, “fully accepted responsibility for his role in this assault” and was “thoroughly ashamed”.

The court was told that Yussef had been “appalled by his behaviour” which was fuelled by drink and drugs and he had penned a letter of apology to Miss McAvoy.

Judge John Beashel told them: “This is a most serious matter. Your victim was a young woman and you terrorised her in her own home; that is a very real aggravating feature.”

Miss McAvoy said she was pleased that both men had been locked up but added: “They will be free in a few years time, I’m seeing a psychologist and will have to live with what they did to me for the rest of my life.”