A violent brute has been jailed for almost four years for battering his former partner and putting her in a sleeper hold during a drug-fuelled rage.
Brian Cooney restricted the woman’s breathing while saying “night night, sleepy time” during a savage attack on the stairwell of a city multi.
The thug repeatedly headbutted and punched his ex as well as emptying her handbag.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told both Cooney and his victim had been consuming drugs on March 5 and had got into a row earlier in the evening.
The woman began packing her things to leave Cooney’s flat at Lansdowne Court before she was grabbed and pinned to a bed.
Fiscal depute Vicki Bell said: “The complainer was heard to shout “help” and “get off me” and moved her belongings into the lift area before the accused grabbed her by the hair and pulled her into a stairwell.
“He began headbutting, punching and kicking her and put her in a sleeper hold but the complainer broke free.”
Cooney emptied the contents of her handbag and fled the scene with the woman being taken to hospital for “significant” swelling on her eye.
When arrested by police, Cooney said: “I just wanted her out.”
The 40-year-old pleaded guilty to attacking the woman by seizing her, throwing her on to a bed, headbutting her, repeatedly punching and kicking her, repeatedly seizing her neck and restricting her breathing at Lansdowne Court on March 5.
Solicitor Ross Bennett said both had been using drugs but Cooney admitted he went “way over the score”.
Jailing Cooney for three years and nine months, Sheriff Alastair Brown said: “Compressing someone’s neck can stop the heart immediately.
“The remark suggests you were setting out to cause her to lose consciousness and that’s unacceptable.”
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