Connor Vicary in prison for assaults and strangulation

This was what prosecutor Sophie Johns told Truro Crown Court when Connor Vicary appeared to be sentenced today (Friday).

Vicary, aged 25, of St Dennis pleaded guilty to two counts of actual bodily harm (ABH) and one of strangulation.

These took place when he was still on licence from a previous 22-month prison sentence for strangulation on an ex-partner.

The court was told that during the first of the assaults, Vicary had pushed the woman and she had hit her head.

He had then held the door shut, preventing her leaving, and telling her “nothing was going to save her.”

Ms Johns said the woman “made a break for freedom” but he caught up with her, pushed her to the floor and locked the door.

She eventually managed to “slip away when the defendant’s back was turned” and ran into the street. However, Vicary grabbed her throat and dragged her back inside.

He then threw her against a wall and she curled up in a ball under a table, crying.

Connor Vicary was jailed for three years and three months at Truro Crown Court (Image: Devon and Cornwall Police)

On the second occasion, Vicary and the woman had been staying in a holiday lodge to celebrate her birthday.

The prosecutor said he had wanted her to watch him play on the X-Box, and when she said she was going to a different room instead he became angry, pulling her around.

A few days later, on her actual birthday, she had been chatting with a friend over FaceTime. Vicary accused her of “bitching about him” and told her to hang up.

“She was worried about what was going to happen, so she locked her phone and put it face down so her friend could hear what was happening,” said Ms Johns.

She said the friend heard Vicary getting angry before he hung up the call, after which he pushed the woman onto the floor and kicked her.

When the friend messaged asking what was going on, he used her phone to reply that everything was OK.

He then dragged the woman around by her hair and pushed her head onto the floor hard, telling her it was “to stop her screaming and crying for help” and covering her mouth with his hand.

Ms Johns said he then strangled the woman until she passed out, before doing it again a second time.

When she woke up the woman cried for her mum, but Vicary’s response was to tell her to “grow up.”

She then asked to go outside for a cigarette, so he took out a kitchen knife and pointed it at her, standing half outside and half inside, to stop her from leaving.

“At this point [the victim] was desperate,” said Ms Johns. “She looked for the kitchen scissors so she could cut her hair off, so he couldn’t drag her around anymore.”

By this point the abuse had been going on for five hours.

After eventually making it home, she messaged Vicary telling him not to call her again because of what he had done. He replied that he loved her and was sorry.

He was arrested by police and did not answer questions, with his solicitor reading a prepared statement denying assaulting or strangling her, saying he put his hand over her mouth because she was shouting.

The court was told that Vicary had 14 previous convictions, including ABH against a former partner when he hit her multiple times with a computer keyboard, and another case of strangulation on a different ex partner, for which he received a 22-month prison sentence and was on licence at the time of the latest offences.

In mitigation, the court was told that since the offences Vicary had completed a number of courses, including alcohol awareness, a “thoughts and feelings” course and one on assertiveness skills.

Hettie Summerhayes, representing Vicary, said he had been diagnosed with adult ADHD and autism, adding: “Sometimes it does impact the way he responds to certain situations, which on reflection he appreciates aren’t correct.”

She added that Vicary hoped to move to Manchester to live his cousin, for a fresh start.

Judge James Adkin sentenced Vicary to three years and three months in prison.