Terrified woman leapt from first floor window to escape violent attacker

A terrified woman escaped her violent attacker by jumping from the first floor window of his Halifax flat, a court heard.

Frank Wilson, 59, had been drinking with the woman at a nearby pub but after they returned to his home on Prescott Street he grabbed her by the throat making it difficult for her to breath.

The complainant then pleaded with Wilson and he let go of her, but prosecutor Nick Adlington told Bradford Crown Court that during the struggle her blouse was ripped and she feared he was going to kill her.

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Mr Adlington said that the woman jumped from the first floor window and landed on a parked car before seeking help from a nearby premises.

Judge David Hatton QC was shown photographs of the complainant’s injuries.

Mr Adlington said the woman had also suffered “a small bleed on the brain” and it was clear that she had jumped out of the window in terror.

Wilson, who had previously been jailed in 2013 for stabbing his wife, pleaded guilty to a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

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Solicitor advocate Charles Watson, for Wilson, conceded that it had been an unprovoked attack on the complainant and he suggested that “the red mist” had descended on his client for a few seconds that night.

Jailing Wilson for the attack last month, Judge Hatton said he had sought to strangle the complainant and she was put in such fear that she leapt from a first floor window sustaining further injury.

“She had considerable bruising and I have seen the photographs,” the judge told Wilson via a video link to HMP Leeds, where he has been in custody since his arrest.

“It is all aggravated of course because you have a significant history of domestic violence and abuse.”

Judge Hatton said Wilson would have been jailed for 30 months after a trial, but his guilty plea meant his sentence had to be reduced by a third.

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