A young mum has told a court of her terror as her former partner tried to kill her.

Lianne Kearns, 21, told Luton Crown Court how Steven McCall, 24, throttled her into unconsciousness at her Stevenage flat on August 26 last year.

She said: “I told him to go away and leave me alone and the next thing I remember is that his hands were round my throat and I could not breathe.

“He said ‘I am going to hurt you like you hurt me. I am going to kill you’.

“I was petrified and then I must have passed out.”

McCall, a baggage handler, gave Miss Kearns mouth to mouth resuscitation before getting a bread knife and asking her to “put him out of his misery”, the court heard.

The couple who have a baby son, had been in a relationship but were living apart, Thomas Allen, prosecuting, said.

McCall from Wisbech, had pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and making threats to kill Miss Kearns.

He was convicted of both charges by a majority of 10 to 2 on Friday and sentenced to six-and-a-half-years in jail.

David Stanton, defending, said: “He was always aware he would go to prison whatever the jury’s verdict but he could not accept he had any intention to really hurt her.”

Judge John Bevan said: “This is a sad case. This was a sudden and total loss of control. You could have killed her. You lost it.”