A WHITEHAVEN man pulled his partner down stairs and held scissors to her throat during prolonged violence heard by a shocked neighbour.

Thirty-year-old Luke Steele also told the woman “I will kill you” and “I will choke you out” during violence which flared on November 14, 2023.

A neighbour alerted police to Steele's illegal acts at around 2am.

“To say she had been woken by loud banging,” prosecutor Peter Wilson explained at Carlisle Crown Court, “and could hear noises which suggested the complainant was being assaulted.”

She was saying “please, no”, and also “please, don’t”.

Officers attended the property. “The complainant could be heard saying ‘you have been battering me for more than an hour’,” said Mr Wilson.

When arrested, Steele warned he was “coming back for everyone”.

In an interview, the woman told of being pulled down stairs by the hair. “Clumps of hair were seen to be falling out as she was running her hands through it,” said the prosecutor.

Steele strangled the woman, made the kill threats and held scissors to her neck. “The complainant stated that he makes threats to her all the time,” added Mr Wilson. “He was punching her, threatening to have her head stamped on.”

Steele admitted charges of assault by beating, threats to kill and possession of cannabis which was found after his arrest.

The court heard he had 49 previous offences with three convictions for past violence dating back to his time as a youth.

Steele had initially told his legal team he “didn’t lay a finger” on the woman last November. He also claimed a head injury he had previously suffered meant he was “incapable of not telling the truth”.

However, a medical expert had unequivocally rejected this assertion in a report which prompted the sentencing judge, Recorder Julian Shaw, to conclude that Steele had made a “fanciful suggestion”.

Sean Harkin, mitigating, said Steele, of Balmoral Road, Whitehaven, had a limited record for violence. Mr Harkin said his instructions were from the defendant that the woman had since contacted Steele while he was remanded in custody, and was “keen on resuming the relationship”.

Recorder Shaw imposed an immediate 32-month prison sentence, and a three-year restraining order which bans Steele from having any contact with the woman.

“Your victim is vulnerable,” the judge told Steele. “She is a young lady attacked by you in her own home.”