A drunken yob who twice strangled his partner and repeatedly assaulted her in front of their two young children in a Warrington hotel has been jailed.
Thomas Francis attacked the woman late at night in a hotel room at Gullivers World in Warrington during which he threatened, “I’ll f….ing do 15 years for you.”
Liverpool Crown Court heard that the incident happened on October 24 this year after Francis had gone out drinking before returning to the family’s hotel room.
He went to bed and she told him his mobile phone was ringing and he called her “a slag”. She told him to get out and pulled the blanket off him.
“The defendant got up and pushed her to the floor and got on top of her with his hands around her neck. “His grip got tighter until she started to lose consciousness,” said Shannon Stewart, prosecuting.
He repeatedly told her, ‘I’ll f….ing do 15 years for you.” She was in a daze and he went to the bathroom to be sick and when he returned said to her, “F….ing breathing again are you?”
Francis, who had been a promising schoolboy footballer on the books of Everton and Preston North End, grabbed her by the hair “and ragged her head back and forth, causing it to hit the bedpost multiple times.
“He put her in a choke hold using his arm around her neck to squeeze. She felt like she was in a dream and could not breathe. She was face down on the floor and lost consciousness,” said Miss Stewart.
“She came to and tried to leave but he grabbed her head and hit it repeatedly on the wardrobe, punching and kicking her.”
After he left she went to the hotel reception and staff called the police. 27-year-old Francis was found in the forest near to the hotel and arrested.
In an impact statement, the victim said, “He has taken part of me away. I used to be bubbly and fun but not any more. My friends notice that I am no longer that person.
“I feel like he has killed part of my life and personality …my life has changed completely.”
She said that she suffered bruising to her face and neck and her ribs were in a lot of pain.
Francis, of Foxhill Close, Toxteth, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to two offences of strangulation and assault. He admitted being in breach of a suspended prison sentence for offences including robbery.
Paul Wood, defending, said Francis accepted “his behaviour was utterly disgraceful. He has not tried to water down what is said by the complainant. He is very sorry.
“He behaves in an appalling manner when he has been drinking.”
He said he has not been drinking since as he has been in custody and he knows he has to be tee-total in future. He is very remorseful of his behaviour in front of his children, said Mr Wood.
He suffers from anxiety and depression and had a very difficult childhood.
Mr Wood told of Francis’s youthful football prowess but explained that the teams let him go because he was leading a nomadic lifestyle and was unreliable.
Jailing him for a total of three years and nine months Judge Sarah O’Brien said that the incident in the hotel room had been “utterly terrifying” and there two children were in the room.
She imposed a ten year restraining order to keep away from his victim,
