Tredegar Man Jailed After Suffocating Partner in Brutal Attack

A 41-year-old man has been jailed after a horrific assault on his partner that left her fearing for her life.

Matthew Clarke from Market Street, Tredegar, was sentenced to two years and ten months imprisonment at Newport Crown Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of criminal damage.

The court heard that Clarke breached bail conditions when he entered his partner’s Tredegar home on October 29 last year. After accusing her of being unfaithful, he smashed her phone against a bathroom radiator before throwing it at her.

In a series of escalating attacks throughout the day, Clarke hit the victim with a can of cider and poured alcohol over her. When he returned later that evening, the situation became even more dangerous.

Prosecutor Amelia Pike told the court that Clarke “began to strike her multiple times to her face and body using both hands” before straddling her arms and placing a pillow over her face on “three or four occasions for minutes at a time.”

The victim reported feeling punches through the pillow and was unable to breathe, believing she was going to die. Eventually, in fear for her life, she armed herself with a kitchen knife before police, who were attending an unrelated matter nearby, heard her calls for help and arrested Clarke.

In her victim impact statement, the survivor revealed the severe impact of the attack: “I thought I was going to die. I started having flashbacks and when I walked out the flat I never went back to the property. I couldn’t sleep because I thought he was going to get me again or kill me.”

The court heard Clarke had 19 previous convictions, including five offences against the person, and was in breach of a suspended sentence order at the time of the attack.

Judge Daniel Williams also imposed a 10-year restraining order against Clarke. ⚖️