A MAN who attempted to strangle his partner before bombarding her with threatening text messages and emails has been jailed for 35 months.

Paul Strickleton, 49, gripped his victim so hard around the throat she wet herself and then watched from the sofa as he made her clean up her own urine.

Appearing at Bolton Crown Court, via videolink from custody, Strickleton, of no fixed abode, but from the Bolton area, sat with his head in his hands as Recorder Ian Unsworth QC sentenced him to 25 months imprisonment for assault and 10 months for sending malicious communications to run consecutively.

Jane Dagnell, prosecuting, said it was in the early hours of the morning on a date in October 2018, that Strickleton began sending abusive messages to his 45-year-old partner while their five children were asleep.

When she tried to diffuse the situation he grabbed her around the throat and caught her face with his finger nail leaving a cut which scarred.

Strickleton pulled her to the floor where she wet herself through fear, before cleaning up the mess while he watched. One of the couple’s children saw the mark on her face, but was told she had scratched herself on a tree branch.

The court heard that in January 2019, Strickleton began sending her a succession of emails calling her “a dirty whore”, “a slag” and one that said “bye bye slut”.

It was at this point that the victim “left the home for a place of safety”, but Strickleton continued to send messages including one in February to one of his children threatening to “get even” and one in March saying “for liars there is always a price to pay”.

Strickleton was arrested on April 25 while a patient at Beech Ward at Royal Bolton Hospital where he was being treated for psychosis linked to his heavy cannabis use.

He originally pleaded not guilty to a charge of controlling behaviour, accusing his partner of lying, but pleaded guilty to the new charges three weeks before trial.

Recorder Unsworth QC said Strickleton posed “a very real threat” to his victim’s life and treated her “with contempt and disrespect”. He added that the strangling incident was “an indication you could kill her if you wanted to, when you wanted to.”

An indefinite restraining order was also imposed.