AN "EXTREMELY dangerous" man who throttled his friend as part of a plot to get back inside prison has had his wish granted.

Lloyd Browning choked Rebecca Murphy until she fell unconscious and began having a fit in her Didcot home.

Oxford Crown Court heard the attack was part of his plan to go back to jail: he asked to be handed a life sentence on the first day of his trial.

It was the second time Browning was jailed for throttling a woman, after he was thrown behind bars for four years for attacking former fiancée Charlotte Jones in 2010.

Sentencing the 26-year-old to five years and six months in jail on Wednesday, Judge Peter Ross warned Browning he could have killed his "vulnerable" friend of two years.

He condemned Browning's attempts to frighten Ms Murphy from going to court, adding: "It was a cruel and insidious method of putting pressure on a victim - someone who had suffered very badly at your hands."

Ms Murphy said she was shouting, screaming and crying during the attack, and bit her lip and tongue while she had a fit.

She said she was left with swelling and rashes to her face and neck and a bleed in her left eye.

In her victim personal statement, she said she had flashbacks of Brownings's face, adding: "He could have killed me and left my daughter without her mother. I feel really isolated now – my trust in people has gone."

Prosecutor Marie De Redman told the court that Browning told Ms Murphy he wanted to hurt her so he could return to prison.

On the day of the assault, Browning refused to leave Ms Murphy's home when she asked him to go so she could catch up on sleep.

Ms De Redman said he followed her to the bedroom where they argued, adding: "He made it clear he was only going to leave if she allowed him to hurt her. Ultimately she relented."

The prosecutor said Ms Murphy felt she had no option but to give into Browning's demands, shouting "go on, do it then".

He walked behind her before grasping her neck and throttling her, which made her to fall in and out of consciousness.

Ms De Redman said Browning put his victim in the recovery position after she collapsed and had a fit due to a lack of oxygen, then called the emergency services himself.

But the prosecutor said he reacted "angrily" in custody, clenching his fists and telling officers at Abingdon police station "I will make her life hell".

She said Browning made a number of phone calls to Ms Murphy, left her a voicemail and wrote her a letter to scare her off appearing in court and make her feel "guilty".

Defence barrister Jane Brady said Browning witnessed domestic violence and was physically abused three times a week as a child.

She went on to say he struggled since being released from jail, left without an effective support network and using drink and drugs "heavily".

Browning was handed a restraining order and jailed for four years, with a one-year extension of his licence, for assault occasioning actual bodily harm on March 1.

He was jailed for a further 18 months for two counts of attempting to intimidate a witness.