'Dangerous' Wellingborough abuser Steven Sandall strangled his ex, trashed her house then set fire to her kitchen twice when she ended their relationship

Steven Sandall strangled the woman until she felt she might die, wrought extensive damage to her home including ripping kitchen cupboards from their fixings and slashing a sofa, before leaving knives upright after he had stabbed them into her possessions.

Now the 37-year-old has been jailed for six years and ordered to serve an 11 year extended sentence after a judge described him as a danger to future partners.

Sandall was at Northampton Crown Court yesterday (Thursday, September 19) to be sentenced after pleading guilty to arson, arson with recklessness as to whether life would be endangered, burglary, assault and strangulation.

Prosecuting, Jonathan Stone said that Sandall, of no fixed abode, had been in a relationship with his victim between October 2022 and December 2023, and had moved into her home in Wellingborough.

Mr Stone said: “It was as controlling relationship but things got worse when he moved in.”

He said that Sandall would threaten to kill himself if the victim did not do what he wanted, but said these were ‘selfish, artificial cries for help.’

During their relationship he block-paved her drive for her after she paid for the materials and when she broke up with him on December 6, 2023, he demanded £6,000 from her. Her parents eventually had to hand over £4,000 to get him off her back.

On December 15 she was out in the pub when Sandall approached her and asked her to try to work things out. She refused, but when she arrived home at 3.30am she discovered her house in a mess.

Mr Stone said: “Her kitchen cabinets had been pulled off the wall and destroyed.”

She went into the dining room to find Sandall smoking, waiting for her. She asked him how he got in and he grabbed her and pushed her to the floor. She hit her head on the floor.

"She ran upstairs and saw her work laptop and phone had been damaged,” said Mr Stone.

"A window in the study had been smashed from the outside, which had been Mr Sandall’s point of entry.

"He walked into her bedroom and grabbed her around the neck. He was on top of her straddling her, squeezing her neck very hard around her windpipe.

“In the victim’s words, ‘I was petrified, I thought I was going to die.’

"She thought she was going to pass out and he wasn’t going to let go.”

The attack lasted about eight seconds before she managed to fight him off by scratching at him and pulling his hands.

"He was in my face, contorted and angry at me, screaming,” the victim said in an impact statement.

She managed to escape and alerted a neighbour who phoned police. When they arrived, the victim went to her house with them to find a tea towel had been set on fire in her kitchen and knives had been stabbed into a folder. The sofa had also been slashed.

Sandall was arrested and told police that she had attacked him after he had gone into her house to look for a passport.

He was released on bail and the victim was forced from her home because she felt unsafe.

She regularly checked the property and there were no incidents recorded until March 23 when she was called by police to hear that the defendant had been arrested.

She went to her home and saw that there were gouge marks in the doors. Smoke alarms had been disabled and the defendant had tried to disconnect them at the consumer unit. He had also turned on all the gas taps on her cooker and set fire to kitchen towels. There was also a second fire started on a cushion which he had brought from the living room into the kitchen.

Mr Stone said: “He intended something much worse to happen, but it didn’t.”

The total damage was costed at £5,762.

The court was told that Sandall had previous convictions for battery and criminal damage, against his ex-partner, from 2016.

In mitigation, barrister Paul Webb said that his client was intoxicated at the time.

"What was behind this offence was the coming together of significant emotional strain, not only the relationship breakdown, but also exceptional alcohol consumption,” said Mr Webb.

He said his client had a difficult childhood and was expelled from school and had significant mental health issues in later life. He had been left homeless and sleeping in a park after the relationship breakup. He also had debts of £22,000 and had lost his job.

Her Honour Judge Rebecca Crane said: “(This was a) horrific experience with a long lasting, devastating impact.

"The victim remains anxious and feels vulnerable and has problems sleeping.

"She’s unable to return to her home as she doesn’t feel safe there.

"You completed the safer relationships programme in 2017 but you have not been able to apply that learning. The probation service says you are at high risk of causing serious harm to new partners and that’s accurate.”

Judge Crane said that Sandall falls under the legal criteria of dangerousness so imposed an extended sentence.

He was given four years for the lead arson offence as well as two years for the other offences he admitted, to run consecutively. His six year prison sentence will be followed by a five-year extended sentence to be served in the community.

He will become eligible to apply for parole after serving two thirds of the four years sentence and half of the two year sentence. That means he will not be released until he has served at least three years and eight months.

An eleven year restraining order was also imposed, banning him from going within 100m of his victim.