Cocaine-fuelled man strangled girlfriend and smashed up her home in anger after oversleeping
A cocaine-fuelled construction worker attacked his girlfriend and smashed up her home when he overslept for work after a night of booze and drugs.
George Hurst, 32, pushed the woman's face into a wall so hard a mirror broke, and strangled her until she was struggling to breathe, Preston Crown Court heard.
Hurst, of Bolton Road, Chorley, is now beginning a 16-month prison sentence for the violent incident at the woman's house on 3 August 2021.
Recorder Andrew McLaughlin, sentencing, said: "The domestic context of the offending makes it even more serious."
On 2 August, Hurst stayed over at his then partner's house and was drinking and under the influence of cocaine.
The following morning, he did not wake up in time to start work at 7:30am and attempts by his partner to wake him were unsuccessful.
It was only when a colleague arrived to collect Hurst that he woke - but was in a bad mood, the court heard.
He kicked a TV from a chest of drawers in the bedroom, and knocked the drawers over, before pushing his partner into the spare bedroom, causing her to bang her head on the floor.
"She felt she was going to pass out and had to move her neck the other way to continue breathing", Recorder McLaughlin said.
The woman tried to call the police, but Hurst took her phone away to prevent her from doing so.
As she fled downstairs to try to escape the attack, Hurst followed her and put his knee across her neck on the sofa, before spitting in her face again.
The judge said: "No doubt in fear and terror of what might next occur, she attempted to go out into the street and scream as loud as she could for help.
"You grabbed her by the hair and pushed her face into a wall, causing a mirror to smash."
The woman was left with bruises and lumps to her head and elbows and marks to her neck.
She added that she still has pain in her hip and knee, and her mental health has suffered as a result of the attack.
Hurst pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) and criminal damage and appeared at Preston Crown Court to be sentenced.
Recorder McLaughlin said: "[Domestic violence] represents a violation of trust and security which normally exists between people who are in an intimate or family relationship.
"There was strangulation of your partner and a prolonged and persistent assault in three rooms of the house."
He said the offence was aggravated by the physical and psychological injuries caused to the victim, as well as the repeated spitting in her face.
The judge accepted Hurst was a hardworking man of previous good character and would not be able to spend time with his child when he was behind bars.
But he said: "The only appropriate punishment for this sustained, prolonged assault in someone else's home on your then partner, can be immediate custody."
He made an indefinite restraining order to protect Hurst's' victim.