A woman who was buried alive by her fiancé managed to claw her way out of a shallow grave.

Stacey Gwilliam, 34, thought she was going to die after she had been attacked by Keith Hughes, 39, and covered by undergrowth and branches.

She said she woke up in darkness and felt paralysed.

Speaking to Wales Online, she said: “It felt like I was buried in a grave – there were dead branches, ferns and shrubs all over me. All the undergrowth was so heavy on top of me. I was struggling to breathe or remember where I was.

“Everything seemed to be happening so slow.

“I managed to turn over and clawed – digging with my nails and dragged myself out.

“I don’t remember everything that happened. I just went for help. My life will never be the same again."

After pulling herself out of the make shift grave, Ms Gwilliam collapsed outside a golf club by Caswell Bay, to where the police were called.

Her bodybuilder fiancé strangled Ms Gwilliam after having a row while walking along a coastal path near Caswell Bay on the Gower Peninsular of South Wales in July.

He hid her body after she blacked out, believing she was dead.

Hughes was arrested after crashing his car whilst drunk, and told the police: “You’ll never find her.”

He was jailed in 2013 for separate assaults on Ms Gwilliam, and spent three years and nine months in prison.

Ms Gwilliam had suffered with ovarian cancer whilst he was in prison and they rekindled their relationship once he was released.

Judge Paul Thomas said he was considering a life sentence because of Hughes’ past offending and the “nature of the harrowing” attack on Ms Gwilliam.

Hughes was convicted of attempted murder at Swansea Crown Court on Tuesday, and must serve a minimum of eight and a half years.

Ms Gwilliam spent 26 days in hospital after the attack, 14 of which she was in a medically induced coma.