A BULLYING boyfriend was last night (Thursday) starting a two-year prison sentence for a terrifying attack on the mother of his three children - because his car would not start.

David Teal repeatedly punched his cowering partner, choked her, ran at her with an eight-inch knife, and vowed: "I'll f***ing kill you . . . you won't see the night out."

Part of Teal's hour-long attack at the family home in Billingham was heard by a police operator after his victim secretly dialled 999 and hid her mobile telephone.

He sobbed in the dock of Teesside Crown Court as a recording was played - revealing his menacing threats and his partner's screams.

Prosecutor David Crook told Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, yesterday that trouble flared on April 14 - when 38-year-old Teal was violent for the first time.

Mr Crook said: "He became annoyed, unreasonably so, because his car had broken down. Out of the blue, passing her in no doorway, he slapped her across the head."

The prosecutor said Teal continued to be verbally abusive, and told his victim: "I'm going to bully you all night . . . I'm going to choke you til your breath stops."

In between the physical attacks, he went on: "I'll f***ing kill you and you won't see the night out . . . leave that couch and I'll put you in intensive care."

When police arrived at the house, the woman was so traumatised she could not speak, and Teal, now of Kilmory Walk, Hartlepool, was arrested after a struggle.

Duncan McReddie mitigating said Teal, who admitted assault and making threats to kill, had been visited in prison on remand by his girlfriend.

"For this one terrible and frightening loss of control, he has exposed himself to the risk of a prison sentence of some length," added Mr McReddie. "It would be his first."