Thug strangled girlfriend twice and brutally assaulted her in hotel

Thomas Francis also repeatedly bashed her head against a wardrobe and bedpost in the horrific attack in a Warrington hotel room.

The 27-year-old could be seen crying when he appeared, via video link from HM Prison Altcourse, at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday to be sentenced.

This came after he admitted charges of intentional strangulation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Shannon Stewart, prosecuting, told the court that the incident occurred on October 24 this year at Gulliver’s World Hotel.

Francis had gone out drinking, before returning to the family’s hotel room, in which children were present.

He went to bed, and when his partner told him that his mobile phone was ringing, he called her a ‘s**g’.

She told him to get out and pulled the blanket off him, but he pushed her to the floor and got on top of her with his hands around her neck.

“His grip got tighter until she started to lose consciousness,” Ms Stewart said.

He repeatedly told her: “I’ll f*****g do 15 years for you.”

The victim was in a daze when Francis went to the bathroom to be sick, and when he returned, he said to her: “F*****g breathing again are you?”

Francis, who had been a promising schoolboy footballer on the books of Everton and Preston North End as a youth, grabbed her by the hair and ‘ragged her head back and forth, causing it to hit the bedpost multiple times’.

“He put her in a choke hold using his arm around her neck to squeeze. She felt like she was in a dream and could not breathe. She was face down on the floor and lost consciousness,” said Ms Stewart.

“She came to and tried to leave, but he grabbed her head and hit it repeatedly on the wardrobe, punching and kicking her.”

After he left, the victim went to the hotel reception where staff called the police. Francis was found in the forest near to the hotel and arrested.

During his police interview, Francis claimed that the victim ‘went berserk’ when he returned after drinking and that she ‘hit him and herself’.

He denied any assault but said he restrained her. However, he said that he did not cause her any injury.

Thomas Francis was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court

Ms Stewart revealed that the defendant has 10 previous convictions for 16 offences, including two for battery in 2016 and 2022.

He was made the subject of a 19-month prison sentence suspended for two years in August for robbery, battery and public disorder – meaning the strangulation incident placed him in breach of this suspended sentence.

Ms Stewart described the Gulliver’s World incident as a ‘persistent’ assault which had a ‘substantial’ impact on the complainant, aggravated by the defendant being intoxicated and the fact that children were present.

In an impact statement, the victim revealed that she suffers from ‘severe anxiety’ and sleepless nights as a result of the incident.

She also said she worries about the children having witnessed the attack and that she is ‘no longer the same person’.

“He has taken a chunk out of me, and part of my life away. I used to be bubbly and have a laugh, but not anymore,” she said.

“My friends have noticed that I am not the same person, and I am worried I will never get that back. Although he did not kill me, he killed a part of my personality. I have changed forever.”

It was said that the assault left the victim with bruising to her face and neck, as well as pain in her ribs.

“The incident has rippled through my life and changed every aspect. Me and my kids will never be the same again,” she added.

Representing his client, Paul Wood described his behaviour as ‘absolutely disgraceful’, but offered mitigation in that Francis is ‘very sorry for what happened’.

It was said that he ‘came off the wagon’ on the day, but he ‘now knows he has to stop drinking and be t-total’.

“He is someone who can be a calm and rational individual when sober, but when he has been drinking, it negatively affects him,” Mr Wood said.

“He says he is heartbroken, and the worst thing he could do was to behave in the way he did towards her in front of children, and he is deeply remorseful.”

Mr Wood referenced the defendant’s ‘deprived’ upbringing and how he started drinking after his football career ended.

“He knows he will receive a custodial sentence of some length. I ask your honour to temper it to the mitigation,” he added.

Francis, of Foxhill Close in Liverpool, was sentenced by judge Sarah O’Brien to three years and nine months in prison.

He was also made the subject of a restraining order, prohibiting him from contacting the victim or entering named locations, for the next 10 years.