A MOTHER who was strangled by her former partner has described feeling “broken” after he avoided jail despite the horrifying attack.

She told Bradford Crown Court that she was “horrified and haunted” by the attack from Antonio Del Core on April 8 last year.

During her terrifying ordeal she was strangled, kicked and poked in the eye.

She said the “brutal beating” had left her shocked, numb and devastated. Del Core, 27, of Spring Avenue, Long Lee, Keighley, admitted the offence and was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a community order.

A two-year restraining order bans him from contacting the woman or going to her home.

But speaking after the sentencing, she said: “I felt absolutely broken. 

“It’s been a really long, tough journey and has taken absolute strength to get where we are today.”

She described feeling let down, both by the lack of jail time, and by the length of the restraining order, which she had hoped would be indefinite.

“I left the courtroom before the end of the hearing because I just absolutely broke down.

“I was only able to stand up and say everything I did, because I was thinking the whole time, that this was for my daughter.  

“I made the decision to stand up without screens and address the court because that for me was the final closure that I possibly would ever get out of this case.

“But no, I don’t feel like the sentence reflected the severity of the trauma,” she added.

“He very much has a private and a public face. I think that’s what makes these people the scariest type of perpetrators because they are able to live under the radar. The most important thing for me basically was trying to protect my daughter, and escape that relationship safely for us.

“I was assured by lots of people that he would be jailed. That was the thing that probably kept me going throughout this really long journey.”

Of the trauma for both she and her daughter - who was 18 months at the time - she added: “My daughter was traumatised, she couldn’t breathe. She was hysterically crying for 45 minutes.  But she is slowly rebuilding her confidence months down the line.”

The court heard that Del Core had previous convictions for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, battery, criminal damage and dangerous driving. 
He had applied pressure to another former partner’s neck and driven at her, knocking her on to the car bonnet.

Del Core, who works as a chef, has moved to Morecambe to make a fresh start.

The judge, Recorder Weir QC, said Del Core had great difficulty in coming to terms with what he had done but in a letter to the court, he expressed deep regret for his actions and said he wanted to help with his anger issues.