Thug left partner gasping for air after strangling her in horrific Kettering assault
A thug strangled his partner and left her gasping for air – before goading her to try and use a knife she had picked up to protect herself.
Alan Lister is starting a prison sentence after the horrific incident which took place inside his victim’s home in Kettering earlier this year.
He woke up in a ‘bad mood’ and launched a violent attack after an argument turned nasty, leaving his partner bruised after kicking her and throwing items at her.
On Tuesday (August 13) he was jailed for 15 months after admitting assault causing actual bodily harm and criminal damage.
Prosecutor Micaila Williams told Northampton Crown Court that Lister and his partner had been in a two-year relationship described as ‘toxic’.
On March 7 police attended her home for a welfare check where she disclosed an assault had taken place just three days earlier.
The victim told officers that she had woken Lister, 38, so he could go to the job centre and that he was in a bad mood because she didn’t have money for him to buy drugs.
She tried to call a truce when Lister, of no fixed address, became more nasty – only for him to turn violent.
Ms Williams said Lister kicked his victim, injuring her thigh, before pinning her down and hurting her wrist and then biting her arm.
Ms Williams said: “She was screaming ‘get the f*** off me’.”
Lister, who appeared at court over videolink from HMP Peterborough, then placed his hands around her throat and squeezed, leaving her struggling to breathe.
Ms Williams said: “She describes that she was gasping for air.”
The court heard that the victim dug her nails into him and fought back, managing to get away and run into the kitchen crying, where she was sick.
She grabbed a knife to protect herself and Lister goaded her to try and use it before throwing two glasses at her when she put the blade down.
He then threw a foot stall at her, injuring her foot after she lifted her leg to protect her face, before fleeing when she picked up the knife again and told him to leave. The victim did not wish to make an impact statement as part of the criminal hearing.
The court heard Lister’s criminal record includes breaching a domestic violence protection order last year. He was jailed for 54 months for causing grievous bodily harm in 2006, but details of that incident were not heard at court.
Lister held his head in one hand as the court heard sentencing guidelines gave punishment for his offending a starting point of 18 months in prison.
Mitigating, Adam Pearson said the father-of-two had found prison particularly difficult since being remanded in custody in March.
He added that there had been gaps in Lister’s criminal history, although His Honour Judge William Harbage KC said he did not seem to be learning his lesson.
The court heard Lister was left with a fractured skull after being assaulted last year, which had left him unable to work.
But Judge Harbage KC told him: “It provides no excuse or justification for you behaving in this way.”
Lister’s sentence was reduced from the starting point of 18 months to 15 months in prison because of credit for his guilty pleas.