A violent thug who choked his partner and threatened to “chop her into little pieces” with an axe has been jailed for more than three years.

Arnoldas Ciucelis carried out the brutal attack and made the murderous threat towards the terrified woman during a horror incident in Gifford, East Lothian, in February 2023.

The victim escaped the violent assault by jumping six feet out her living room window but was chased and caught by the brute who attempted to drag her back into the property Ciucelis, 31, picked the woman up and began carrying her back to the house but was forced to drop her to the ground due to her struggling and her loud screams for help.

Shocked neighbours who witnessed the attack contacted the police and after the Lithuanian national fled the area he was later found sleeping at an address in the nearby town of Haddington.

Ciucelis appeared from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court the following day but after being allowed bail he fled the country and was subsequently extradited back to the UK.

He pleaded guilty last month to engaging in a course of behaviour that was abusive of his now former partner all to her injury and danger of life between October 1, 2020 and October 29, 2023. The offending was prosecuted under section 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.

Prosecutor Rachel Hill told the court the couple’s relationship began after meeting through a mutual friend in August 2020 but within weeks Ciucelis began to be aggressive towards her.

He would regularly shout and swear until she handed over money for him to buy alcohol, tried to ban her from speaking to male friends and checked her phone while she was sleeping.

The court heard Ciucelis violently attacked the woman after he had stayed up all night drinking following a birthday celebration on February 18, 2023. The fiscal said the following morning Ciucelis was still “very intoxicated” and after accusing her of “bad mouthing” him he had threatened to “knock her teeth out”.

Ms Hill said: “The accused grabbed her from the sofa and dragged her out the living room. He dragged her into the kitchen where he threw her into a chair and both she and the chair fell to the ground, she landed on her back.

“[She] states at this point the accused began to strangle her. [She] states she was terrified.

“The accused was on top of her and using his left hand squeezed and pressed down on her throat. [She] remembers this going on for some time and eventually feeling her body relax and then her eyes close. She lost consciousness.”

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The court was told the “angry and manic” thug then trapped the woman in the home by locking all the doors and hiding the keys from her.

Ms Hill said: “She states that she felt trapped and was frantically trying to think of way to get out. The accused disappeared for a short time and when he returned he was in possession of an axe and told her he was going to ‘chop her into little pieces’.”

The victim managed to open the living room window and jump two metres to the ground and run to a neighbour’s home for help. Ciucelis chased after her and “picked her up and began carrying her back to the house” but had to drop her due to the woman struggling and “screaming loudly”.

A neighbour later stated he had seen the woman being thrown about “like a rag doll” and saw she had “clear finger marks on her neck”.

Firearms officers attended after being told Ciucelis was in possession of an axe and following a search he was later traced to a home in Haddington “asleep within a bedroom”.

Ciucelis returned to the court from custody for sentencing on Tuesday where Sheriff Kenneth Campbell KC described his behaviour as “a serious offence of domestic abuse”.

Sheriff Campbell said: “Undoubtedly the most serious part of this offence occurred on the 19th of February 2023 where you subjected [the woman] to a sustained attack where you strangled her to the point she lost consciousness.”

Ciucelis was sentenced to a 40 month prison term backdated to August 20 last year and will be supervised for a further 12 months following his release. Sheriff Campbell also issued a non-harassment order banning Ciucelis from contacting his victim for an indefinite period.