A thug boasted he was "the hardest man" in his area while strangling and assaulting a woman during a parking row, a court heard. Stuart McGregor attacked her after she asked him to move his van and even assaulted her mum when she tried to intervene.

It happened on July 28 when the mother and daughter went for a meal to celebrate the latter getting the keys to a new family home. They went back to her mother's home around 11pm to 11.30pm to find a large van, belonging to McGregor who lived opposite, blocking her mother's drive.

When asked to move it by the daughter, he refused, saying "who do you think you are, gangsters, with your eight cars". Chronicle Live reports that Kate Barnes, prosecuting, said: "The defendant continued moving towards her and the next thing she can remember is being on the floor with the defendant on top of her, punching her to the face.

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"She described being terrified and in fear for her life." The woman's mother tried to intervene to stop the attack but she was also assaulted. McGregor, 32, then strangled the daughter with both hands.

Miss Barnes said: "She felt she was going to pass out as he did that. He began aggressively shouting at her, saying 'you don't know who you are dealing with, I'm the hardest man in Seghill'.

"He grabbed her by her hair and ripped out some of her hair, before retreating into his own home."

In an emotional victim impact statement, the daughter said she was "fearful" for her life and said she had "never felt pain like it". She continued: "I feel this will effect my life moving forward.

"Why couldn't he just have been civil and asked for the cars to be moved on the estate. I'm utterly shocked and saddened at the incident. I feel this has highlighted how dangerous this person is."

McGregor, of Seghill in Northumberland, who has 11 previous convictions, pleaded guilty to intentional strangulation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm on the daughter and common assault on the mother. He was also in breach of a suspended sentenced imposed for controlling or coercive behaviour.

Judge Stephen Earl jailed him for 16 months and imposed a five-month restraining order banning him from contacting the women. He was also ordered to pay £1,000 compensation. He said the daughter was "severely assaulted on the ground", adding: "It's by luck and chance they were not more seriously injured.

"The defendant was out of control during the assault, which can only be described as an assault over an extended period of time."

Andrew Espley, defending, said: "He apologises and said no-one deserves to be treated like that. If he could put the clock back he would but he can't and he knows it.

"He wishes there was something he could do to put things right but there isn't." The court heard McGregor had mental health issues but was a "highly qualified and skilled man" who worked as a hydraulic engineer.