BRADFORD MAN JAILED FOR STRANGLING EX-PARTNER IN VIOLENT OUTBURST
AN “out of control and dangerous” man who twice strangled his ex-partner following a family gathering has been jailed for more than three years.Shamrez Khan has also been handed a restraining order banning him from any contact with his victim indefinitely.
Bradford Crown Court heard that Khan, 48, of Highett Drive, Easton, Bristol, was previously jailed for five years in 2012 for false imprisonment, kidnapping, and administering a drug with intent relating to a sister entering a marriage against the family’s wishes.
Sentencing Khan for the intentional strangulation offences, Mrs Recorder Geraldine Kelly KC told him: “You told the probation officer you had done nothing that you were ashamed of.
“Any man who treats a woman in the way you have … should be very ashamed.” The court heard that Khan and his partner had separated following a turbulent relationship, but that he went to her home in Bradford on May 11 this year to attend a family birthday.
He became “unreasonably angry” when he discovered some of his clothes had been donated to charity, and slapped his former partner four or five times across the face.
He then strangled her twice in quick succession: once in the living room, where he grabbed her by the throat before throwing her to the floor, and then again in the kitchen.
Threatening to burn the house down, Khan set light to a cardboard box and threw it at the woman, which burned her dress in an incident during which he was said to be “out of control and dangerous”.
He again grabbed the woman’s throat, held her against a kitchen cupboard, and squeezed so hard she could not breathe.
The victim, who feared for her life, managed to get away and ran from the house.
In a statement, the victim said she had struggled with continuous anxiety and disturbed sleep, felt empty and drained mentally, and suffered from nightmares due to the trauma of the incident.
Khan pleaded guilty on the first day of trial to intentional strangulation and assault by beating.
In mitigation, barrister Ella Embleton read a letter from Khan in which he apologised to his victim, hoped that she would forgive him in time, that events “took a wrong turn”, and that he was “extremely sorry” for his actions on the day.
She said there had been no further offending by Khan in the 13 years since his previous jail term.
Recorder Kelly sentenced Khan, who appeared via video link from HMP Leeds, to three-and-a-half years for intentional strangulation, and two months, to be served concurrently, for assault by beating.
She said Khan had sought to justify his actions, to blame the victim, and had been prepared to put her through the ordeal of a trial.
She said the victim had been left “traumatised” and with “horrific” memories to the extent that she had ended up leaving her job.
She told Khan: “They were violent, bullying, and cowardly offences.
“The victim was entitled to feel safe in her home.”
