Jail for Oxford man who strangled partner in Botley flat

Holding up glossy photographs of the woman’s heavily-bruised and swollen face to the dock, Judge Ian Pringle KC told defendant Tristan Hockley: “The effect of your blows as you well know caused those injuries.”

Earlier, prosecutor Matthew Knight said 46-year-old Hockley had been drinking and taking drugs in his then partner’s Botley flat on December 5 last year.

The couple resumed an argument that had been simmering in the days leading up to December 5, Mr Knight said. “Having both consumed drugs and alcohol, matters took a turn for the worse.”

Hockley picked up the Christmas tree in the living room and threw it from the window of the flat, Oxford Crown Court heard.

The prosecutor said the defendant then ‘turned his anger’ onto his partner. He grabbed her by the neck and, when she tried to push him away, he lashed out with his feet – kicking her in the face. He punched her in the head, landing several blows.

His behaviour then flipped and he appeared remorseful. It did not last long; he again became violent, striking her in her already-swollen face.

She waited until he had fallen asleep before she sought safety and called the police, the court heard.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by Mr Knight, the woman said the attack had left her feeling ‘helpless and hopeless’. “My home didn’t feel like home. It was an absolute state with so much damage. I couldn’t even clean it up; I didn’t want to be there.”

Mitigating, Christopher Pembridge said his client was ‘devastated’ by the harm he had caused.

He had asked the judge to adjourn sentencing for Hockley to be assessed by drug addiction charity Turning Point, to see if they could offer him help with rehabilitation.

But Judge Pringle rejected the submission, telling the barrister: “This was a violent incident against a woman in her own flat. For that reason I think only immediate imprisonment is appropriate.”

Tristan Hockley's 2012 mugshot, after he was sentenced for burglary Picture: Thames Valley Police (Image: Thames Valley Police)

Hockley, of Howard Street, Oxford, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing actual bodily harm and non-fatal strangulation. He had a number of previous convictions, but generally for thefts and other acquisitive crimes to feed a drug habit – and none for violence.

The judge jailed him for 16 months and imposed a five-year restraining order preventing him from contacting his victim directly or indirectly.