A pub landlord who strangled his partner hours after returning from a trip to Manchester has been spared prison. Anthony Muir's girlfriend feared he would "leave her children without a mother" during the vicious attack, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Attack after Elvis gig
The pair had returned to the Prince George pub in Fazakerley, Liverpool, on February 9 last year, where Muir was landlord at the time. The court heard Muir became jealous of his girlfriend speaking to other men. After watching a gig by an Elvis impersonator, he turned violent, throttling her with such force she was thrown from a bar stool to the ground.
The episode "still haunts her today", the court was told. Muir has maintained his innocence despite the attack being captured in full by the pub's CCTV system.
Victim's statement
In a statement read to the court, the victim said: "I should have listened to my instincts and never trusted you. I'm worth more than what you've done to me. Our relationship was short. It was unhealthy and controlling."
She described how Muir's intoxication meant he could not drive her home to her children, and said of his "erratic driving" on the motorway: "I genuinely believed I was going to die and leave my children without a mother. I've not been able to fully process the trauma you caused. I lived in fear you would find me and hurt me again."
Sentencing
Muir, now of Arden in Widnes, was found guilty of one count of intentional strangulation. He was handed a 15-month suspended sentence with 200 hours of unpaid work, a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 20 days, and an alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement. He was also given a restraining order and ordered to pay court costs.
Sentencing, Judge Katherine Pierpoint said: "This is, in my judgement, a serious incident of domestic violence. There is never any excuse for a man, in temper, in aggression, to lay hands on a female."
Muir's victim burst into tears in the public gallery as he was told he would not go to prison.
