‘Demonic’ boozer strangled partner and terrorised her family in Bassetlaw village

John Chittock demanded more alcohol after downing a litre of rum, then screamed abuse, grabbed the woman’s throat in both hands and bit her cheek and nose.

Prosecutor Dawn Pritchard said he passed out but woke at 7pm, on June 28, when he pinned her to bed by her throat again and told her: “I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman – I will still hurt you the same.”

She fled on her mobility scooter to her mum's house in Misterton, but Chittock burst in through a locked door.

When her family tried to block him he shoved her mother in the stomach and threatened her stepfather.

While Chittock’s former partner hid outside and called the police, she heard screaming and smashing from the house. When officers arrived he became enraged, took his T-shirt off and had to be restrained.

Nottingham Crown Court heard they met online in January, but two months later he drunkenly trashed her house and threw her steel wheelchair across the room. When she tried to flee he punched out her car window.

On other occasions he smashed her Xbox console and ‘went crazy’ by smashing a kitchen work surface with a hammer.

He attacked her and cut her foot, stubbed a lit cigarette out on her head, and smeared Sudocreme over her face, leaving her humiliated and terrified.

In a statement, his victim, who suffers from osteo-arthritis, said ‘it was like he was ‘possessed by a demon’ and she was left suffering flashbacks and post-traumatic stress disorder.

She described herself as ‘quiet, happy and carefree’ before she met him but is now ‘a shell of a person’ and said ‘he promised her love and light but chose alcohol instead’.

He has ten previous convictions for 30 offences including arson, assault, criminal damage and harassment.

Jennifer Coldham, mitigating, said Chittock has problems with alcohol, blamed the anti-depressant Sertraline for his behaviour and regrets his actions.

Chittock, 38, of Newall Terrace, Doncaster, pleaded guilty to eight common assaults, five criminal damages, two intentional strangulations and malicious communication.

On Thursday Judge Steven Coupland jailed him for three years.