STV NewsA convicted killer who tried to choke his ex-partner with a phone charging cable has been jailed for six years.
John Clark turned on his victim after keeping her in the flat in Wishaw, Lanarkshire on July 20, 2022.
The woman told jurors how she feared for her life at the violent hands of the 48-year-old.
On Tuesday, Clark was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.
He was earlier convicted of abducting and assaulting the woman to her injury and danger of life after a trial last month.
It emerged Clark had previously been locked up for seven years for culpable homicide in 2004 for killing a man in Lanarkshire.
Jurors in this latest case heard how Clark had been drinking when he returned to the flat in Wishaw.
It was there he refused to let the woman leave and demanded money.
He went on to shove her to the floor before punching and kicking her on the body.
Clark then grabbed a telephone charger cable, wrapped it around the woman’s neck and pulled it in a bid to strangle her.
Describing her ordeal at one stage, she told the court: “I was fighting for my life, scared for my life.”
After she luckily got free, she recalled initially how it was “better to be quiet” in case Clark “kicked off again”.
Clark’s lawyer Iain Paterson questioned whether her being choked with the cable had occurred.
But, the woman replied: “Of course, it happened. If he was man enough, he would tell you that.”
Mr Paterson told the hearing that Clark still denies what happened.
Judge Douglas Brown stated to Clark he will be supervised for a further two years on his release.
He was also hit with a non-harassment order banning him from contacting the woman.
The judge said: “You must have realised when you increased the level of violence, trying to strangle her, she would have been terrified.
“That is how she described her feelings – she thought you were going to kill her.”
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