A woman who suffered a horrific assault at the hands of her then fiancé courageously attended court to see him jailed.

Michael Gregory Ashton carried out a sustained attack over two hours, during which his victim received no fewer than 20 injuries.

He appeared for sentence at the Court of General Gaol Delivery on Friday when he was jailed for a total of 42 months.

In a victim impact statement that was read out in court, the woman said: ‘I honestly thought he was going to kill me. I’ve never been so scared.’

Ashton, 39, whose address in court was given as care of Isle of Man Prison, admitted an offence under the Domestic Abuse Act which was carried out just weeks after he had been released from jail on licence.

Prosecutor Sara-Jayne Dodge told he Court of General Gaol Delivery that police received a call in the early hours of October 26 last year from a woman who could be heard screaming ‘get off me”.

The call was traced to her home address and when they arrived, the defendant answered the door calmly.

Upstairs they found the woman naked, crying and with a bloodied and swollen lip. She had bruises on many parts of her body.

She became hysterical when she heard someone come up the stairs and thought it was the defendant who was going to ‘finish her off’.

The woman told police that the assault had taken place over a two-hour period. It had begun with Ashton carrying a hammer to threaten a neighbour. She had taken hold of the hammer and hidden it upstairs.

He then launched an assault on her.

She had fled first to the bathroom to hide under the sink and try to call the police, and then to the garage where her attacker pushed her against something hard so that she fell to floor.

He then dragged her on her back up the steps and back into the house.

Inside, he pushed her onto the sofa and puts his hands on her mouth and nose. She thought she would pass out.

He inflicted 20 injuries to her body, leaving her with bruises to her cheek, hand, arms, breast, thigh and back.

In her victim impact statement, she said she could not believe what her now ex-partner had done, having only proposed to her the week before.

‘He’s devastated our chance of happiness,’ she said. She said that she’d had to miss being a bridesmaid at her best friend’s wedding the day after the assault.

Ashton, who had been out celebrating his daughter’s 18th birthday that night, told police that he had no recollection of events but accepted his victim’s version of events, saying: ‘Wow- that’s horrific. There’s no excuse - I’m sorry.’

Jailing him for a total of 42 months with a two-year licence extension, Deemster Graeme Cook said: ‘I can only hope with time the brave victim is able to move on with her life.’

Ashton was also handed a domestic abuse protection order to run for an indefinite period.