Choking attack: Man walks free

A BURLEIGH Heads man who choked his now former partner three times during a prolonged attack over two days walked from custody yesterday afternoon.

The 24-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty in Southport District Court yesterday to three counts of choking, two counts of common assault, and one count each of assault occasioning bodily harm and deprivation of liberty.

The court heard the man attacked his girlfriend of five months in their Burleigh unit on May 30 last year when she inadvertently woke him up.

“You grabbed her by the throat and squeezed to the point she had difficulty breathing and felt pressure behind her eyes,” Judge Katherine McGuinness said.

The man also grabbed the woman’s arm and bit her wrist.

The woman was able to escape and told the man if he ever touched her again she would go to police.

The next morning, the man threatened to woman’s mother.

When the woman, who had been in relationship with the man for five months, said she did not like it when he spoke like that, the man attacked again. He grabbed her throat again, pushing her into a couch until she felt dizzy.

The woman managed to escape and the man grabbed her by the throat again before covering her in a blanket.

He punched her four times to the back of the head and ordered her into a car.

The man drove off and the punch the terrified woman grabbed the handbrake to stop the car.

During a struggle the man hit the woman and also hit her head against the car.

The court heard she managed to flee to a friend’s place.

Defence lawyer Robert Butler said the man had been struggling with a drug addiction since he was 14 but had been clean since going into custody on June 1 last year.

Judge McGuinness sentenced the man to two years and three months in jail, but he was released on parole immediately.