A MAN strangled his girlfriend until she blacked out after going on a vodka binge at her home.

Patrick Daly, 30, from Pontypool attacked the woman after spending the day drinking with her watching the Wales v France Six Nations rugby clash last year.

Nuhu Gobir, prosecuting, said the couple had been in a happy relationship before the defendant turned violent in March 2022.

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They are no longer together and the woman asked for a restraining order so that he can’t contact her.

Daly drank Corona and Budweiser lager earlier in the day before he started drinking vodka when a friend of his then partner came to the house.

“His girlfriend was surprised because he didn’t drink vodka as he said drinking it brought out a different person in him,” Mr Gobir told Cardiff Crown Court.

“The defendant told her not to worry about it but it was clear that he was getting drunker and drunker.”

Daly was “getting paranoid” and attacked his girlfriend in the early hours of the morning after her friend had left.

The defendant had earlier verbally abused her and accused her of cheating on him.

The judge, Recorder Neil Owen-Casey told, Daly: “You assaulted your victim by grabbing her to the throat.

“You used strangulation.

“Strangulation is a serious aspect of this case.

“You threatened to kill her and she blacked out.”

Mr Gobir said: “The victim has stated that she now struggles to sleep and is fearful he will return to make the threat he made to her.”

Daly, of Greenwood Road, Abersychan, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He had no relevant previous convictions.

Hannah Friedman, representing Daly, said her client was in a new relationship with a woman suffering from cancer who he cares for.

The court heard how the defendant had spent six months remanded in custody following his arrest.

He now runs his own business in the construction industry and employs four people.

Daly was jailed for 12 months but that sentence was suspended for two years.

The defendant was ordered to attend 29 sessions of a building better relationships programme and made the subject of a three-year restraining order.