The trauma was so great her lips turned black. Pinned down on the bed, Vicky Vacondios​ thought she would die.

With his hand over her mouth and nose, her partner screamed his intentions.

Vicky Vacondios, with her 9-year-old daughter Becky. Credit:Paul Jeffers

"He was close to my face, spitting and saying he was going to kill me. Then he was said he going to kill the kids and then himself so that no other man could have me."

It was not the first time he had been violent. There had been shoving and kicking and, on one occasion, a head butt.