A thug who was secretly captured saying “you’re going to die in my hands” while choking his girlfriend was sentenced to more than two years in prison.
Christopher Forrest, age 40, subjected the woman, age 33, to a horrific campaign of domestic abuse.
When she returned from shopping and an argument broke out in their Blantyre, Lanarkshire driveway, the assaults started.
He seized her by the hair and shoved her against the wall with his hand around her neck.
Forrest then pushed his victim into the back of a vehicle with sufficient force to break the windscreen wiper.
In a second violent outburst, he grabbed her by the neck with both hands and strangled her.
Forrest also often combed through her social media sites and accused her of infidelity.
In another outburst of verbal abuse over money, the thug choked her while threatening, “I don’t care if I go to jail, you are going to die in my hands, you wee cow”
The scared woman attempted furiously to push him away and complained that she was unable to breathe, but the attack persisted.
The horrific footage was discreetly captured by a living room camera.
Between July 2017 and August 2020, Forrest, of Ayr, came before the Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitting to assaulting his girlfriend.
The sheriff, Linda Nicolson, sentenced him to 27 months in jail. In addition, she issued him a one-year monitoring order and a 10-year no-harassment order.
She said: ‘The violence was outrageous and was an attack to the danger of life. The level of violence was appalling.
‘The harm caused to your victim was significant. The severity must be reflected by the court.’
The court heard the relationship had ended in 2017 but they kept in contact over the Blantyre property.
Describing the final attack, depute fiscal Paul Jamieson said: ‘She said he stood up from the couch and placed both hands around her neck and began to choke her.
‘She said he restricted her breathing and she tried to push him away and mouthed I can’t breathe.
‘At this point she was scared she was going to die and the accused placed his head against her head and said ‘look at me, this is how serious I am’.
‘She felt she was going to pass out after 15 or 20 seconds and the accused suddenly let go and walked away.’
Andy Thomson, defending, said: ‘He has expressed great remorse and his actions were inexcusable and he accepts that. He is realistic of the court’s intentions.’