iStockA man who choked a woman and told her “you will be lucky to be alive in the morning” after a row broke out over a remark made at a party has been jailed for six years.
Michael Ambrose, 37, turned on his victim at her home, where she fought back and escaped.
Ambrose admitted an attempted murder charge at a hearing at the High Court in Glasgow where he was sentenced on Monday.
The court heard how he had been at the party with the woman before going back to her home in Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, on February 23 this year.
A row broke out over a person earlier, commenting that she was “not good” for Ambrose.
The woman wanted to know who had made the remark, but he refused to say.
Ambrose then went on to pour wine over the victim, grabbed her, and she fell to the floor.
He overpowered the woman as he screamed at her: “Who the f*** do you think you are?”.
Prosecutor Lindsey Dalziel said Ambrose clamped his hands around her throat.
The advocate depute said: “She thought she was going to die. She tried to break free and fight him off, biting him on the hand at one point.
“She begged him to stop, but he continued to push down with what she described as his ‘full weight’.”
The victim felt herself becoming unconscious.
Ambrose yelled again at her, threatening: “I will f***ing kill you. You will be lucky to be alive in the morning.
“Tell me why I should let go.”
The woman struggled before “finding the determination to survive for the sake of her children”.
She got away and raced out to a friend’s house nearby for help.
The woman was bloodied, bruised and had puffy eyes.
She told her friend: “If I had not turned away, he would have killed me. He tried to strangle me.”
Police were called, and the woman was taken to hospital.
She had suffered injuries to her jaw, neck, face, eyes and ears.
Medics stated the woman appeared to have been subjected to a “potentially life-threatening strangulation episode”.
Ambrose was later arrested and said: “What have I done?”
The court heard he had previous convictions, including for violence.
Lady Hood told him one of the factors she had to consider was the protection of the public whenever he is freed.
She added: “I am persuaded the normal conditions are not adequate that an extended sentence is appropriate.”
As well as the jail term, Ambrose will be supervised for a further three years on his release.
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