A police officer who arrested a thug for domestic violence against his partner feared he would die after he was grabbed around the throat and throttled, a court heard.

PC Ryan Willoughby told how Sylwester Krzysiek squeezed his throat so hard he could not breathe.

“I remember unreservedly thinking to myself it was game up,” he said in a victim statement. “I was panicking, unable to breathe and unable to do anything about it.”

Polish-born Krzysiek had earlier tried to strangle his partner and went on to assault three other police officers during his arrest.

But he walked free after a judge told him he was prepared to give him another chance by suspending an eight month prison sentence for two years.

The 29-year-old father, of Milbourne Grove, Milton Regis, Sittingbourne, admitted assaulting PC Willoughby causing actual bodily harm and four offences of common assault.

Self-employed Krzysiek, who served a two-year jail sentence in Poland in 2008 for robbery, became violent after celebrating a boy’s holy communion on May 29.

Prosecutor Martin Hooper said Krzysiek had been drinking all day and had downed as much as a litre of vodka.

During the evening he argued with his partner and grabbed her around the throat.

When police arrived at their house, she said she did not want to support a prosecution, Mr Hooper told Maidstone Crown Court.

"I remember unreservedly thinking to myself it was game up. I was panicking, unable to breathe and unable to do anything about it" - PC Ryan Willoughby

PC Willoughby handcuffed Krzysiek but he got out of the police van and kicked him in the groin.

“There was a struggle and he grabbed him by the throat,” said Mr Hooper. “He squeezed so that the officer couldn’t breathe. He was taken to hospital because of fears about his raised blood pressure.”

Krzysiek turned to another officer and threatened before lunging towards him: “I try you now.” He and another officer suffered minor injuries and one was spat at.

Dad-of-two PC Willoughby, who has not returned to work five months on, said in more than 13 years in the job he had “never come up against such a frightening and serious assault”.

Representing himself because he had not been granted legal aid, Krzysiek said through an interpreter: “I would like to say I am sorry and I regret what happened. That situation should not have arisen. I promise it will never happen again.”

Judge David Griffith-Jones QC said of the assault on Krzysiek’s partner: “There is no excuse for such violent behaviour. It was cowardly, it was the behaviour of a bully.”

PC Willoughby, he said, had suffered psychological as well as physical injuries. He had been signed off indefinitely.

“It might be said you intended more harm than resulted before you were thwarted by other officers,” he told Krzysiek. “So far as mitigation is concerned, there is frankly very little.

“You have expressed remorse and regret, indicating you have learnt your lesson. I consider a prison sentence is demanded but in the circumstances I am prepared to give you another chance by suspending it.”

Krzysiek was ordered to pay the officer £500 compensation at the rate of £25 a week. He will also have to complete 200 hours unpaid work.