Sex attacker jailed for 10-hour torture ordeal

A man has been jailed for 21 and a half years after subjecting a woman to 10 hours of torture in which he shaved her head, strangled, beat and sexually assaulted her.

Tommy Hitt, 46, of Springhead in Sutton Veny, Wiltshire, deliberately damaged the woman's phone and held her against her will at his property and inside a vehicle on 21 February.

The victim has been left with life-changing injuries after Hitt fractured her eye socket and smashed several teeth.

She said: "He beat me up for about nine and a half hours. If I hadn't managed to get away, he would have killed me. He told me that I had to ring my mum to say goodbye and for her to say goodbye to me because he was going to kill me."

Hitt previously pleaded guilty to strangulation, false imprisonment, grievous bodily harm, threats to kill, criminal damage, possession of cannabis and two counts of sexual assault and actual bodily harm.

He was jailed at a hearing at Winchester Crown Court on Friday.

In her victim impact statement, the woman said she now struggles to walk down the road without looking over her shoulder.

"Everything has changed," she added.

"I can't get the words he said to me out of my head, about killing me."

After the hearing, Det Con James Gatherum, from Wiltshire Police, said the woman had shown "incredible bravery" after going through the "10-hour ordeal".

"Hitt strangled her and assaulted her with such force that he fractured her eye socket, leaving her with extensive significant bruising and swelling," he added.

"The victim was also sexually assaulted twice during those 10 hours, with threats being made by Hitt that he would kill her. To add further degradation to the victim, Hitt forcibly shaved her hair off.

"He then drove her to another location, and while doing so, repeatedly assaulted her within the vehicle. Fortunately, with quick thinking, the victim managed to escape, where she was able to raise the alarm."

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