Doncaster man accused partner of being unfaithful and 'held knives to throat and eyeball'

Louis Windsor-Harris, aged 21, grabbed the woman in a head-lock and pushed her back onto the stairs, but became even angrier when she kicked him in the groin, at her home, on March 28.

Prosecutor Beverly Wright described how he grabbed her by the throat until she passed out, warning her not to call the police and threatening to murder someone if she did.

Later that day, he hurled a bottle of brandy at her, accused her of infidelity and pushed her into the fridge.

"She was coughing and trying to get her breath," said Ms Wright. "He held her neck for a few seconds."

She sent a "secret distress codeword" text, to call the police, before Windsor-Harris put a black-handled knife to her throat and told her: "If you want me to kill you, I will.”

He then held the blade of a silver-handled knife so it touched her eyeball, before offering her the handle and saying: "Go on and stab me, straight between the kidneys. Make it quick."

When she said she didn't want to hurt him, he said: "You don't have the killer instinct."

Windsor-Harris made threats against her dogs and pointed the sharp end of the knife against her thigh. Police arrived and he was arrested.

Sheffield Crown Court heard he had been violent and accused her of infidelity during their two-year, off-and-on, relationship.

He has six previous convictions "largely for violence," and received a 12 week suspended sentence for affray in September, last year.

Kathryn Lill, mitigating, said probation officers were keen to work with him because there is "a realistic prospect of rehabilitation."

She said he had been in care since he was six, and lacked "emotional maturity", before urging the judge to consider a suspended sentence.

Windsor-Harris, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and one assault occasioning actual bodily harm on March 30, at Doncaster Magistrates Court

Judge Graham Reeds QC handed Windsor-Harris, who has already served 66 days on remand, 42 weeks in custody.