A senior police officer strangled his girlfriend who feared she was ‘going to die’ when she recorded him being verbally abusive during a row, a court heard.
Former chief inspector Mark Warner, 56, who worked for Greater Manchester police, screamed at the woman, who has not been named, that he would lose his job and pension if colleagues heard the recording, before allegedly pinning her up against a wall by her throat.
She told Preston Crown Court: ‘I felt like he wanted to kill me and knew how to. I had gone from the point where I thought he might. I had resigned myself to it and wanted to die.
‘It almost got to the point of not being scared because I had resigned myself to the fact I was going to die.’
Former chief inspector Mark Warner, 56, who worked for Greater Manchester police pictured giving a speech about the terrible effects of Hate Crime
The victim told the trial at Preston Crown Court (pictured) that she thought she was going to die
The court heard that, at the time of the attack, in July 2022, Warner was working in the Rochdale area for GMP but has since retired.
Adam Lodge, prosecuting, said Warner had been in a relationship with the woman from 2018. He moved into her home at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, in March 2020, and they bought a property together in Whitworth, near Rochdale, in January 2022.
‘This defendant was at times loving and complimentary, yet there were other times when he became angry and aggressive,’ Mr Lodge said.
By May 2022 the woman was ‘simply frightened of him’ and, with the support of domestic abuse workers, made the decision to leave, the court heard.
But she returned a short time later because she needed to sell the house and provide a home for her children when they returned from university for the summer.
The couple lived separately with their own bedrooms and bathrooms – Warner on the ground floor and his ex upstairs.
However, on July 27 the woman returned from work at 10.15pm and was greeted by Warner ‘like a manic and excited Tigger’.
She told the court that he wanted to show her a picture he had hung in the house but, when she wasn’t interested, he began shouting and stomping around.
An argument ensued and the woman started recording Warner via a voice recording app on her phone ‘in an extremely unedifying manner,’ Mr Lodge said.
‘He took the phone from her and continued to shout that he could lose his job and his pension,’ the barrister added. ‘He was clearly very sensitive about how the police force would react to the way he treated his own partner.’
Warner is accused of screaming at a woman and then pinning her up against the wall by her throat
Warner took her phone to his bedroom but as she tried to snatch it from him, he grabbed her by the throat and pushed her against a wall and a sliding door, the court heard.
‘He grabbed her in such a way that her head and neck made contact with the door frame causing immediate pain,’ Mr Lodge said. ‘Having done that the defendant didn’t let go. He continued to hold her in that position. As he did so his fingers and hands tightened around her throat to the point she struggled to breathe. He carried on squeezing as he continued to scream in her face about his job. His partner began to panic. She struggled to break free from his grip.’
Mr Lodge told the jury that the sliding door came off its runners which brought ‘the defendant to his senses’.
The woman sent a message to Lancashire Police and officers arrived and arrested Warner. He was charged with intentional strangulation, which he denies.
Warner accepts there was a falling out and that he took the phone but claims she ‘went mad and was trying to punch him’ so he used his hands to push her away.
The trial, expected to last three days, continues.