Overview
- David McKenna, 53, was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court by Judge Jeremy Hill-Baker following a months-long pattern of domestic abuse.
- He pleaded guilty to wounding with intent, intentional strangulation, and controlling and coercive behaviour after initially denying the offences.
- Prosecutors detailed repeated assaults, including smashing a glass ashtray into the victim’s face on May 17 and using a throw to compress her neck days later while issuing death threats.
- A BT engineer who arrived to install broadband heard abuse, saw the victim pinned, called 999, and police later arrested McKenna; he subsequently handed himself in at Middlesbrough police station.
- The victim required hospital treatment for an infected forehead wound and extensive facial injuries, and she reported suffering a mental breakdown in her impact statement.