A man has narrowly avoided jail after he throttled his girlfriend until she was moments away from death.
Daniel Reid told Louise Duncan that he was sorry before he stated: “I’m going to have to kill you I have lost the plot.”
The 36-year-old was in their home in Bucksburn at the time when the pair had been discussing ending their three-year-relationship.
Reid then stood up and approached Miss Duncan before grabbing hold of her throat and compressing hard until she almost lost consciousness.
She only managed to escape his grip after she turned her body round to face him and gouged her finger into his eye.
Miss Duncan then ran screaming from the flat when a neighbour let her in.
Reid then left their home and handed himself into Royal Cornhill Hospital in Aberdeen telling nurses there that he thought he had just killed someone.
Yesterday Reid, of 13 Millstone Place, Kemnay, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court for sentence having previously admitted committing the offence when he appeared in court last month.
The court heard Reid had committed the offence on August 2 last year after he had been drinking.
Fiscal depute Felicity Merson said that a medical report had stated that Reid had carried out a manual strangulation on his former partner and that this was extremely “hazardous to life and may result in sudden death”.
However, representing Reid solicitor Les Green said the incident was “completely out of character” for his client who had a completely unblemished record until this incident.
He said it was Miss Duncan’s belief that Reid had been let down by the health services who had not recognised that he had serious mental health problems and was in need of help.
Mr Green said that his client had been assessed by professionals who had deemed that he was not a risk to the public and argued that despite admitting endangering Miss Duncan’s life he believed a non custodial sentence could be imposed.
Sentencing Reid, Sheriff William Summers said he acknowledged the seriousness of the offence but said that he also accepted Reid was “extremely remorseful” for what he had done.
Sheriff Summers placed Reid under supervision for two years and ordered him to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work in the community over the next 12 months as a direct alternative to custody.