'Judges not up to speed on strangling sentences'

SHORT TERMS NOT HELPING VICTIMS

- By SOPHIE DOUGHTY

IT is an “ultimate” act of violent control, that brings victims close to death before finally letting them go.

The use of strangulation in abusive relationships is rising rapidly, according to Tyneside's longest running domestic violent charity.

But courts are not handing out sentences that reflect the severity of the crime, a victim today said. Nonfatal strangulation and suffocation became a specific offence in law in 2022, carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Yet earlier this month it was reported that Wallsend domestic abuser Lee Ellis would spend just months behind bars after admitting assaulting and strangling the mother of his children.

The sentence handed to Ellis left Gemma Laidler, who was also strangled by her former partner, furious.

The victim turned campaigner has urged courts to get tougher on those who use strangulation to control and terrorise their victims.

Gemma said: "It's horrific. All I seem to be reading at the minute is strangulation after strangulation. The courts haven’t appreciated just how bad it is.

"You can easily lose your life when you are being strangled. I thought I was going to die. It left me with this feeling that he could have killed me but chose not to.

"And it left me with that fear. I now realise how much of a control tactic that was. He had us there, he could have killed us, but he chose not to.

"You only have two goals when you strangle someone and that’s to stop them breathing, or to make them think they are going to die. Luckily I managed to kick him off, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

"It can cause brain damage, it can cause incontinence and it can cause a heart attack"