A Folkestone abuser strangled his partner after pulling her over by the hair and throwing her down the stairs.

When Kevin Friend’s partner gasped for breath he told her: “I am going to kill you - you are going to die.”

The window-fitter was jailed for 22 months prompting a torrent of expletives as he was led to the cells at Canterbury Crown Court.

Prosecutors explained how the 32-year-old throttled his victim with such force she thought she was going to die.

“The victim was pulled by her hair, she was then thrown down the stairs and effectively throttled.

“She feared for her safety. She didn’t lose consciousness but was unable to breathe,” Caroline Knight added.

“The woman fled from the premises bare-foot, a woman she didn’t know attended to her and police were called.”

The barrister explained the violence unfolded after the pair became intoxicated following an evening drinking.

She described the father-of-two’s criminal past as “troubling”, with 37 previous convictions, he relatively recently racially abused an eight-year-old girl.

He levelled racist comments at a security guard in Thanet after downing a bottle of scotch, beer and prescription drugs in 2017.

Then he turned his attention on the pupils who were on their way home, slapping some, pushing others as he levelled a variety of racist taunts at his victims.

At the time, the court heard Friend went to the same partner’s home and assaulted her - he was jailed for two years on that occasion.

“While she was on the stairs you held her down and began strangling her..."

Speaking of Friend’s latest attack, Judge Mark Weekes said: “It is, in my mind, likely to have been a sustained or a repeated assault on the same victim.”

He added: “While she was on the stairs you held her down and began strangling her, while you were strangling her you told her you were going to kill her and she was going to die.

“The words you uttered were chillingly indicative of your intent at least at that point.”

Mitigating, John Fitzgerald said his client pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm at an early opportunity and has become a teaching assistant while on remand following the October 20 incident.

Wearing a blue polo shirt Friend, of Ingoldsby Road, Folkestone, cursed loudly as he was led to the cells protesting his innocence.

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