Cleator Moor: Man jailed after stabbing and strangling woman

Carlisle Crown Court heard the woman was stabbed in her back and leg

A man who stabbed, strangled and head-butted a woman has been jailed for nearly four years.

Louis Pattinson, who was described as an "animal", strangled her three times before attacking her with a knife she had tried to use in self-defence.

Carlisle Crown Court heard the 28-year-old stabbed the woman in the back and leg at her home at Cleator Moor, Cumbria.

A jury found him guilty of non-fatal strangulation, wounding and assault.

The woman attended a police station in February, two days after the attack, and told officers she would be "thrown about", kicked and punched by Pattinson.

She described him as a "panther" who would turn up at any time.

"She said he would be terrifying to any woman," prosecutor Dan Bramhall told the court.

The woman described Pattinson as an "animal" during later disclosures with police about a different incident in which he had dragged her from a sofa before head-butting her.

He was jailed for 46 months and banned from contacting her.

At sentencing, the judge heard Pattinson, of Howe Street, Carlisle, had previous convictions for assaults on the same woman as well as his sister having held her by the throat and kicked her.

He had also been convicted of assault on his mother after stamping on her head and threatening to kill her.