A jealous boyfriend has been jailed for a ‘torture’ attack in which he bit his partner on the nose and strangled her until she thought she was going to die.

Brendan Dugan was angry that his girlfriend had gone for a night out with other friends and spent five hours keeping her awake and interrogating he after she returned to their home in Cullompton.

He had already tried monitoring her during her night out in Exeter by hacking into her social media accounts and he seized her phone so he could examine her messages and texts.

She managed to get the phone back briefly when he went out to buy cigarettes but he became violent after returning to find she had changed the password. He threw objects around their home and then started his attack by biting her on the nose.

He pinned her down on the bed with his knees and put a pillow over her head but she pushed him off. He then got on top of her again and strangled her for about 30 second while telling her he was going to kill her.

The woman managed to escape from the bed and ran out of the house to seek refuge with a neighbour and was able to call the police even though he still had her mobile.

Dugan was arrested on a motorway bridge after the incident.

Dugan, aged 29, of Barnes Close, Willand, admitted intentional strangulation and common assault and was jailed for ten months by Recorder Miss Hannah Willcocks at Exeter Crown Court. She also made a restraining order banning any contact with the victim for two years.

She told Dugan: “There are some aggravating features. You were under the influence of alcohol and the strangulation was in the complainant’s own home. It is aggravated generally by being in the context of domestic abuse.

“In mitigation, you have a positively good character and this was a long term relationship with no history of domestic violence. There has been an eight month gap since with no offending or repeated behaviour. You are in stable employment and have pleaded guilty.

“That is indicative of remorse and the circumstances in which you were arrested on a motorway bridge are indicative of levels of upset and turmoil.”

Mr Thomas Faulkner, prosecuting, said the couple had been together for seven years but their relationship was breaking up. On Friday, September 2 last year they spent the day arguing because she planned to have a night out in Exeter with friends and he didn’t want her to go.

She went anyway but found he had been drinking and was still up and waiting to confront her when she got home at 1.30 am the next morning. She wanted to go to sleep but he would not let her.

He continued accusing her of seeing another man throughout the night before attacking her at around 6.30 am, leaving a cut to her nose and bruising around her neck. He told police he could remember nothing.

She wrote a victim personal statement which said: “I am still in shock. I was dreading going back home and feared he would do something stupid to hurt me. Being kept up all night was a form of torture.”

Mr William Parkhill, defending, said Dugan has no previous convictions and no history of domestic violence. The victim confirmed he had never attacked her before and was so ashamed of his actions that he went to a motorway bridge with the idea of taking his own life.

He has a stable job and home, caring responsibilities for a young child and has started a new relationship. He is a good prospect for rehabilitation who would benefit from working with probation.