A mum was headbutted and choked in a violent attack by her ex-partner as their children slept upstairs.
Carly Naylor, 30, from Litherland was attacked after she returned home from a family party, on March 8 last year.
Ex-partner Ryan Thorp had not attended the party and was at home babysitting their two young children, now aged four and two.
However Carly said while at the party Thorp started to send her aggressive text messages and "knew there was going to be trouble."
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She told the ECHO: "I was at the party and it got to a bit later in the night and I got a few texts from him.
"He was like 'when are you coming back' and I said not just yet.
"His attitude changed then so straight away I knew there was going to be trouble.
"He was sending me messages saying, 'don't be f*****g taking the p**s' and things like that.
"When I got back, I put my key in the door and popped my head in the living room.
"He was still up sitting on the couch in the dark. This was 2.30 in the morning, even though I'd said in the messages for him to go to bed.
"When I came back downstairs I walked straight past him into the kitchen and then he said, 'you fat f*****g b***h' and as I turned around he headbutted me.
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"He headbutted me, punched me, bit me. I've got a scar on my arm from his bite.
"He hit me multiple times in the face, bear in mind I had two kids in their beds in the house at the time."
Carly describes the vicious attack which went on for around twenty minutes, culminating in Thorp, 25, choking her while she was on her hands and knees on the kitchen floor until she fell unconscious.
Carly said: "As I was coming to on the floor, I heard him in the living room in my bag.
"He must have stood on my iPhone because he came over and threw it at me and it was bent like a banana. All the screen was smashed. He said, 'there you are, there's your phone.'
"I think he must have panicked and didn't want me to call the police.
"I didn't run out for help or anything as I was so scared. I just wanted to wait until it was safe and he'd gone to work the following day."
Carly, said she was thankful her children didn't wake up to see the violence and took them to her mum's for safety.
The next day, she arranged to have the locks in her home changed while Thorp was out at work and when he returned demanded he pack his things and leave.
She then phoned the police to report what had happened and was taken to hospital when officers saw the extent of her injuries.
Carly said: "Police sent an ambulance here and they asked me if I wanted to go to hospital. I said no just because I was worried about the children. I was also scared and embarrassed about it all.
"They suspected I had a fractured skull at the front of my head. I've still got a lump on it now from where I was headbutted."
Thorp, whose last known address was Wynstaye, Broadmore Green, Rushwick, Worcester, was arrested a few days later in Worcester.
Yesterday, at Liverpool Crown Court he was sentenced to 13 months in prison for assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He has also been made subject to a three year restraining order.
Carly said: "What was so upsetting was my daughter seeing me in that way.
"I had to wear sunglasses to pick her up from nursery, even though it was raining. People were staring at me, it was humiliating and horrible."
Except for one other occasion, Carly said her ex-partner's behaviour towards her had been verbally threatening more than physically threatening in the past.
She said he displayed an intense jealousy of her having friends and was controlling and manipulative, but she never expected him to inflict such a brutal attack from which she still suffers psychologically.
She said: "It's with me every day, every time I look in the mirror and the scars on my arm. Every time I walk in the kitchen. It's horrible, I think I'll have to move house at some point.
"When he was strangling me I was terrified and was thinking this is it, I'm going to die with two kids upstairs in bed. All I could think of was them."
She continued: "I'm trying to get on with my life but I've still got bad anxiety. But each day is a new day.
"I feel better that he's out of my life and he's not controlling me any more. I feel like I can breathe again, if that makes sense?
"I think people should speak out about these things - I've got nothing to feel ashamed of. It needs to be out there to protect other women from him."
