A man has been jailed for a “horrific” act of violence against his former partner who was strangled with a twisted jumper, suffocated and repeatedly punched in the face.
Kane Horler, 27, flew into a rage at the couple’s home in Selby after finding a message on the victim’s phone to another man, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Liz Muir said the victim had tried to keep out of Horler’s way after a heated row at the house in Elston Avenue and went upstairs for a bath, taking her phone with her. Horler suddenly appeared in the room and asked to borrow her phone to make a call.
Horler found the text message. After locking the bathroom door he began punching her, hitting her head against the mirror.
He accused her of cheating on him while “calling her names and threatening to kill her”.
She fled to the bedroom where he put a jumper round her throat: “She felt like she was suffocating.”
The attack continued for some time. One punch saw her hit her head against a wall causing a serious wound.
She ran into the street where neighbours found her covered in blood and “walking around in a daze”.
They took her in. Police arrived at about 7pm to find the “visibly shaken” victim in blood-stained pyjamas and with injuries all over her body, including scratch marks to her face and throat, reddening around her neck, cuts to her shoulder blade, a bloodied head and what appeared to be a bite mark to the back of her leg.
Continuous flashbacks
Horler was later arrested at a different property. He tried to blame the victim, claiming she was the aggressor and he had acted in self-defence.
He was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and making a threat to kill. He initially denied the offences but ultimately pleaded guilty to ABH on the day he was due to face trial earlier this year.
The threat-to-kill charge was dropped.
Horler, now of Wakefield, appeared for sentence yesterday (Friday).
The mother-of-two said she had suffered serious mental-health problems since the attack. She had problems sleeping and suffered from anxiety and panic attacks.
She had continuous flashbacks and now felt too “overwhelmed and paranoid” to attend social events.
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Defence barrister Andrew Petterson said Horler was an otherwise hard-working man who had never been in trouble before and had now become a doting father to a child from a new relationship.
He said that Horler, a bricklayer, had launched the vicious attack “at an emotional time in his life, having discovered his partner was pregnant and (there was) some disagreement as to whether that pregnancy should go full-term”.
Judge Simon Hickey said the “prolonged” attack and the consequences for the victim were “horrific.”
Horler was jailed for two years and given a 15-year restraining order banning him from contacting the victim and posting anything about her on social media.