A violent bully left a terrified woman fearing that he could kill her one day after he suddenly attacked her and repeatedly strangled her when she asked him to turn down the volume of the music and video games that he was playing.
The panicking woman desperately tried to shout for help but enraged and aggressive Benjamin Pierce told her: “No one is going to help you now.” She had suffered “mental torture” and was a “shell” of the person that she used to be, Hull Crown Court heard.
Pierce, 29, of Moorfoot Close, Bransholme, Hull, admitted offences of intentional strangulation, threatening behaviour and causing criminal damage on October 19.
Fintan Molloy, prosecuting, said that the couple had previously been in a relationship. Pierce sent her a message to say that there were no energy drinks in the house. There was a series of messages between them and she said that she thought that he was getting them.
The woman later told him that, if he did not sort himself out, he would have to leave. She found him playing video games and music very loudly and she asked him to turn the sound down. Pierce told her: “It’s not that f***ing loud.”
The woman told him that she wanted to sleep on the sofa away from him but he pushed her into a wall and put his hands around her throat. He strangled her for about two minutes and she struggled to breathe and could not get any air, although she did not lose consciousness.
The woman managed to get away from Pierce and to go downstairs crying. He followed her downstairs and told her: “Go on – f***ing cry. It won’t change anything.” He stood over her and started screaming at her.
She told him to leave and that she was going to call the police. He told her: “Do it. I’m not f***ing bothered. I’m not scared.” Pierce strangled her again for 30 seconds and started to punch at a door, making a hole in it.
He pushed her onto a sofa and strangled her for a third time, for a minute but she did not lose consciousness. He forced his fingers into her mouth and down the back of her throat, causing her to struggle to breathe.
The woman tried to shout for help but Pierce told her: “No one is going to help you now.” He forced his fingers further into her mouth and he told her: “The more you shout, the worse it gets.”
Thankfully, she managed to break free and escaped outside, said Mr Molloy. Pierce was shouting at her to come back inside. A neighbour heard shouting and he saw Pierce trying to drag the woman back inside. The neighbour told him to leave her alone.
The woman suffered injuries to her neck, mouth and eye. She later said that the whole experience had greatly affected her and the threats that Pierce made would be constantly at the back of her mind. She was a shell of her former self.
She said: “Will he kill me one day? That is a possibility. I want him to realise that he can’t get away with this behaviour.
“He needs to know there are consequences for his actions. I want to not be scared every day. I should not have to live with this mental torture every day.”
During police interview, Pierce made no comment to all questions. He had convictions for possessing cannabis and careless driving.
Hannah Turner, mitigating, said that Pierce had lived an isolated life because his parents lived in Spain and the relationship with the woman had been the best thing to happen to him.
“It was thoroughly abhorrent behaviour, which has obviously had an effect upon his victim,” said Miss Turner. “Why he acted this way on that day is unclear. By his actions, he has lost the best thing that ever happened to him.
“It is his first violence offence. It was some serious offending. He does accept that this relationship is now over.”
Judge Alexander Menary told Pierce: “This is offending that can’t continue. If you do continue, you will be returned to prison for longer and longer periods of imprisonment. This was an unpleasant and ongoing assault on a woman in her own home.”
Pierce, who had been in custody on remand, was jailed for one year and he was given a seven-year restraining order.