Teenager who strangled ex-girlfriend until she passed out is jailed

A teenager who caused his partner to blackout after he strangled her inside her home has been jailed.

Joel Thompson, 19, turned up at the woman's house and assaulted her before she ran into one of the bedrooms to hide.

Newcastle Crown Court heard she eventually attempted to leave but was strangled until she passed out and then then followed to the doctors by the defendant.

Omar Ahmad, prosecuting, said: "In the afternoon of the 7th of March this year the defendant attended her home in Sunderland.

"She describes he attended under what she describes as whizz (drugs).

"The pair argued in the address. The defendant assaulted her by pulling her hand and twisting it around her back and she felt as if he would break it."

Mr Ahmed told the court that Thompson then placed his left arm around the woman's throat but she managed to run to the bedroom and lock the door.

However, Thompson, of no fixed abode, managed to get into the room and demanded to see her mobile phone.

Mr Ahmad said: "She tried to leave the address. The defendant then grabbed her by the throat with both hands and started strangling her.

"She describes feeling dizzy and her vision was going blurred. She remembers waking up on the floor and the defendant saying 'You're not getting your phone back mind.'"

The court heard she was then followed to the doctors by Thompson, where she was seen to privately by a GP.

After disclosing what had happened, the police were called and the defendant was arrested.

Mr Ahmad said that two days later, while on bail, Thompson was back at the victim's home where he slapped her to the face while they were in bed.

He was later arrested again and pleaded guilty to intentional strangulation and two counts of assault.

Sam Faulks, defending, said his client's grandmother had written a seven-page letter addressed to the judge about her grandson's difficult upbringing.

He said: ""If you have a stable childhood and a stable school and a stable beginning, all these matters help you deal with any difficulties that life throws you. This defendant didn't have that."

Mr Faulks added that Thompson had been in custody for months already and invited the court to suspend his sentence.

However, Judge Andrew Smith sentenced him to 12 months behind bars.

The judge accepted his remorse and lack of past offending but told him: "The message needs to go out that some offences of violence are so serious that they have to be met with an immediate custodial sentence."

Thompson was also handed a five-year restraining order.