Jail for Fife man who throttled woman until she blacked out and laughed at her

A judge told Lee Spence that he had admitted a serious assault which had taken place over a protracted period of time.

Lady Carmichael said that there was no alternative to a custodial sentence because the assault was to the danger of the victim's life and involved hitting her on the head with a metal pole and restricting her breathing until she passed out.

She told the 22-year old he would have faced a five and a half year jail term but for his early guilty plea.

Unemployed Spence was originally charged with attempted murder but earlier admitted a reduced charge of assaulting the woman to her injury and danger of her life in an attack on her on March 2 and 3 this year at Kirk Drive, Leslie.

The sustained violence perpetrated against her left a doctor at Queen Margaret Hospital, in Dunfermline noting 16 separate injuries, including blood shot eyes.

Advocate depute Margaret Barron said: "The physician who examined the complainer concluded that her injuries were consistent with being assaulted and the haemorrhaging in her eyes was consistent with strangulation."

The prosecutor said the care assistant, who was 20 at the time, was at the home address of Spence, who had been drinking, when he became agitated and aggressive.

He began shouting at her and called her "a slag" and threatened to kill her before he grabbed a vacuum cleaner pole and beat her on the head with it.

He began punching her on the head and body and then grabbed her by the neck and squeezed tightly. "She stated that 'after a few minutes everything went black and the next thing I remember I woke up and he was crying'," said the prosecutor.

The advocate depute said the victim did not know for how long she lost consciousness.

Later Spence grabbed her again by the neck.

He smashed a glass against a door before stabbing her on the leg with shards from the broken object and then shouted at her: "Look what you made me do."

Miss Barron said the woman had later told him that she had a sore head. "He replied 'that's where I hit you with the hoover' and started laughing at her," said the prosecutor.

Work colleagues who later saw her noted that she was injured and police were contacted.

Defence solicitor advocate Gordon Martin said Spence intended to make efforts to address substance misuse and anger management.

He told the court: "He has a low tolerance of boredom."

Spence was told that he would be placed on a supervised release order for a year when he will be under the supervision of the local authority after serving his custodial sentence.