A paranoid husband tried to suffocate his wife with a pillow telling her: “I’m going to finish you off.”
Martin William Tudor, 46, was jailed for six years today for his attack on his wife in her bed.
She felt she was in a struggle for her life, Teesside Crown Court heard today.
The taxi driver assaulted her after she hid an axe he’d been carrying in the street.
He’d shouted and bawled when she refused to tell him where the axe was.
He left the bedroom but came back in later when his wife was asleep.
Prosecutor Adrian Dent said: “He placed something, most probably a pillow, over her face, covering her mouth and nose and preventing her from breathing.
“He was saying things like: ‘I’m going to finish you off once and for all. Die, you b******, die.’
“He then punched her repeatedly to the head. He was holding her arms down.
“She thought she was going to be killed. She thought he was trying to kill her.”
The victim managed to struggle free, sought refuge in another room and dialled 999.
She suffered bruising to her head and arms and haemorrhaging to her left eye.
In a statement read out in court, she said she was divorcing her attacker.
She said: “I’ve just finished four months’ worth of counselling through My Sister’s Place.
“I don’t think I could have got through it all without them.
“I feel generally better but I will never completely get over it.
“Overall this has affected my greatly over the past six months. I’m finding a way to cope but I will never get over what Martin did to me.”
She said her child, who overheard the threats, was also affected by the experience.
Mr Tudor was arrested at the home drunk, tearful and making wild accusations against his wife, with scratches to his face and a wound to his left ear.
He told police he didn’t intend to hurt her and “got wound up” on the night of September 23 last year.
He later said he wrongly believed his wife was having an affair and lost his temper.
He had suffered from depression leading to aggressive outbursts, made worse by alcohol abuse.
Mr Dent said there had been previous domestic violence and the long-suffering wife had probably been “treading on eggshells”.
Mr Tudor, formerly of Gunnergate Lane, Marton, Middlesbrough, was originally charged with attempted murder.
He admitted the unusual charge of attempting to choke, strangle or suffocate his wife with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm.
He had a 2001 conviction for assault and was cautioned for assaulting his wife in 2008.
A psychiatric report said he did not have a mental disorder requiring treatment, but suffered paranoia and “pathological jealousy”.
Robert Mochrie, defending, said: “It lasted seconds. He’s a man of large build, clearly a man capable of overpowering his wife, and yet he desisted.
“Had he wished to, the incident could have gone on for far longer and turned into something far more serious.
“There was a lack of premeditation. This is something that boiled over on the night, arguing in an increasingly dysfunctional marriage.
“It was something of a one-off event in his life, a serious one.
“It marked the culmination of all the negative, ill-founded thoughts that he had been harbouring for a significant period of time.
“He does deeply regret his actions. He wishes very much he could turn the clock back but he can’t.”
Mr Mochrie said the former ICI worker acted under a mistaken but genuinely held suspicion.
He said Mr Tudor was an otherwise good father who had mental health difficulties, suffering depression and anxiety for years.
Judge Peter Armstrong told Mr Tudor his problem was paranoia and excessive drinking.
He said: “This must have been a terrifying incident for her.
“She was a vulnerable victim in her own home. It was a sustained assault upon her.
“If it had gone on longer, one shudders to think what might have been the result.
“The physical injuries she may get over. The psychological injuries from this behaviour may take a good deal longer to subside, if they subside at all.”
He jailed Mr Tudor for six years and gave him an indefinite restraining order banning him from contacting his estranged wife or going to streets where she lived or worked.
