‘CCTV caught my boyfriend torturing me for three hours and preparing a noose’
Mother-of-one Bethany Marchant says her then-boyfriend threatened to drown her after putting her through a three-hour ordeal.
In May, Bethany Marchant, 24, was attacked for hours by her partner in a prolonged assault which saw him tie a noose around her neck and lift her off the ground.
On Monday, Stefan Carr, 28, was sentenced to a total of 11 years and three months at Leeds Crown Court for attacking both Bethany and his ex-partner in quick succession.
Carr, a former soldier, had previous convictions for violence towards women.
Here, Bethany, a dance teacher, tells Sky News her story in the hope it will raise awareness about domestic violence and inspire others to seek help.
As Stefan tied the white noose around my neck, I thought I was going to die.
I had escaped to the bathroom after being repeatedly strangled and suffocated, but when I came out he was waiting for me.
Standing topless in front of me, he got the piece of rope out of a box and made a noose.
He told me that he was a trained killer and he didn’t want to be ‘that’ person, but I was making him that person.
Stefan lifted me up off the ground and then hung me for about three minutes.
At this point I was thinking that my little two-year-old son would never see his mum again.
I wanted to die then, simply because I didn’t want the pain to carry on.
I couldn’t believe Stefan had turned into this person. He had fooled everyone.
I met him in a bar in around June last year and we started chatting.
We began dating in October.
He was charming and really nice – perhaps too nice. He would buy me flowers all the time and we were often going out together.
Stefan was never controlling and he never shouted at me. He didn’t tell me what to wear or anything like that. We never argued.
But on the night of the attack he told me while we were at his home in Castleford, West Yorkshire, that he had been cheating on me.
“She’s better than you,” he boasted.
We were arguing and I told him that I wanted to go home, but he wouldn’t let me.
He took my phone and the keys to my car and locked me in his house.
For the next three hours, he pushed me from room to room and put a pillowcase over my face at one point.
He put his hands around my throat so I couldn’t breathe.
He was shouting at me with a knife in his hand and threatening to kill me and hurt my son.
Every time I tried to scream or shout for help, he would just do it more.
When he released me from the noose, I was throwing up everywhere.
Eventually I managed to persuade him to take me to hospital.
I told him: “Look I won’t tell anybody. I’ll tell them that I’ve been beaten up in town. Whatever you want me to say, I’ll say.”
He shoved me in the back of his van, but luckily the neighbours saw.
They had already heard my screams and phoned the police, but when they saw me outside they called again.
Stefan drove us to the top of the street and told me that he was going to drown both of us in the nearby reservoir.
He said if he went to prison he would have me and my son killed.
By this point, it was around 3 or 4am.
I somehow got out of the van and ran off, screaming to get someone’s attention.
But I was weak from the attack and Stefan rugby tackled me to the ground; he was very tall and muscular and had been taking steroids, so he was much stronger than me.
He threw me back into the van, but I managed to escape and run towards the police who had arrived.
The police were very protective of me straight away and they have been fantastic.
They rang me all the time to check up on me afterwards and they were brilliant in the investigation.
Stefan had set up lots of cameras in his house which recorded the assault – including the moment he made the noose. This made the case stronger as it was used in evidence against him.
Since the attack, I’ve felt very scared.
When I’m out, if I smell the aftershave he was wearing, I just have to get out of that area.
If I see the car he drove, I immediately look at the registration to make sure it’s not him.
I don’t sleep in a dressing gown anymore because if I fall asleep, I’m scared of the cord going around my neck.
So many things trigger the memories.
Now I get a lot of message requests from people who have been in similar situations and who say they have been inspired by me to get help.
My advice to anyone who is suffering domestic abuse – whether that is mental or physical – is to be brave and speak up.
It’s hard to know what people are capable of – but everyone must know that the help is there.
:: If you need help, contact Victim Support on 08 08 16 89 111 or visit the website