A controlling boyfriend who banned his girlfriend from going to the toilet alone after wrongly convincing himself she would contact other men has been jailed for a year.
Steven Bethune, from Congelton, Cheshire, even tried to stop Nichola Stephenson from visiting her own son after becoming obsessed with keeping her in his sight.
The 35-year-old was arrested after strangling the mum-of-one until she could barely breathe, grabbing hold of her head and banging it against a wall, leaving her with bruising to the face, neck and arms.
At Warrington Magistrates' Court, Bethune was convicted of engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and intentional strangulation. He was jailed for 12 months.
Michael O'Kane, prosecuting, said Bethune and Ms Stephenson had been in a relationship since March this year.
He said: "They developed a friendly relationship initially but she describes the relationship as turbulent.
"She thinks that he is an intelligent man with stimulating conversation though he could be sporadically impulsive.
"She reports that the defendant would get very drunk and the relationship deteriorated gradually due to his increasingly erratic behaviour.
"He can be jealous and he was accusing her of cheating on him with other people and would often take her mobile phone.
"When she needed to go to the toilet he would try to stop her going to the bathroom as he believed she was contacting other people."
Last September, Bethune tried to stop Ms Stephenson from seeing her son.
He eventually let her go and became "very drunk" after she left, said Mr O'Kane.
He continued: "They spoke over the phone and she had to ask a stranger to confirm where her partner before she arranged for a taxi for him to get him back to his home.
"She said he seemed like a zombie and she thought it was better to let him sleep it off. But he became extremely belligerent and agitated and would not let her go to the toilet.
"At one point, he grabbed hold of her arms which left some bruising. As the victim tried to move to settle to get to sleep he kept getting angry and more and more violent towards her.
"He grabbed hold of her head and banged it against the wall and grabbed her around the throat multiple times.
"She does not remember which hand he grabbed her with because she was so scared and tried to get them off. She tried to scream.
"She said she thought Steven was trying to kill her. He tried to choke her. She was so scared that she was going to be killed.
"She kept pleading with him, 'Please don't do this.' He said 'Just wet the bed or do it on the floor.' The defendant did eventually let her go to the bathroom though he did follow her.
"They went to settle back into bed but when the defendant went to sleep Ms Stephenson left the property with the keys and contacted police."
Bethune gave no comment in police interview. He had 26 previous offences on his record including assault and public order matters.
Defence lawyer Derek McDonald, mitigating, said: "He has mental health issues and things got out of hand. He says he had no memory of what happened whatsoever."
Bethune was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £187.
