'You are not leaving this house alive': Dad heard chilling taunt down phone as daughter was being strangled

A dad who took a phone call from his daughter as she was being strangled heard her attacker telling her “You are not leaving this house alive”.

The father alerted police who raced to a Middlesbrough address where they arrested her partner James Brogan, 34, for assaults and a threat to kill.

Brogan attacked her when they returned from a night out on November 1 after he accused her of flirting with other men.

He said that they drank two-thirds of a bottle of whisky before going out and they visited a number of pubs.

He took her to his father’s house after they could not find the keys to their own home, and he grabbed her by the throat in a bedroom and he began strangling her.

Prosecutor Rachel Masters told Teesside Crown Court that Brogan claimed to police that he found a number of text messages on her phone from other men.

He could not recall all the threats he had made but he accepted that the incident got out of hand.

Miss Masters said that Brogan was strangling the woman as she attempted to phone her father, who heard him say “You are not leaving this house alive.”

She added: “She had a very real fear that the threat would be carried out because he had his hands around her neck strangling her.

“In a victim impact statement that day she said that she had no intention of carrying on the relationship, but she now says that she does not want a restraining order.”

Since the incident Brogan had been staying at a bail hostel in Newcastle, and she had contacted him by phone texts but he had not replied.

Gary Wood, defending, told the court: “He has made some self-referrals to combat the challenges that he has to his mental health.

“He would certainly benefit from supervision from the Probation Service.”

The judge told Brogan that he was in many ways a responsible individual with a good work record.

Recorder Bernard Gateshill QC added: “But certainly on this occasion you were unable when in drink to control your temper, and you lost your temper on your then partner.

“You were totally and wholly out of control, and this was a serious matter involving you assaulting her and making a threat to kill her.”

Brogan, of Maryjacques Court, Middlesbrough, was given a four months’ jail sentence suspended for 24 months with supervision, six months’ alcohol treatment and a Building Better Relationships course of 24 weekly group sessions and six individual sessions.

He pleaded guilty to two charges of assault by beating and one of making a threat to kill.