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A woman has described the terrifying moment her fiancé threw a radiator at her head and threatened to kill her with a meat cleaver.

Sophie Eyers, 28, was lucky to escape when her neighbour heard of a commotion and called the police as he held a meat cleaver to her throat.

She first met her then boyfriend Samuel James through friends in March 2018 and he soon moved into her house before proposing eight months later.

But she became isolated and terrified when James began to regularly attack her and refused to let her leave the house.

Sophie, a former shop assistant, told Daily Star Online: "There was a constant threatening undertone from him 24 hours a day. To say I walked on eggshells is a massive understatement.

(Image: SWNS)

"He threatened to kill me most days and I was so scared that I could barely sleep. There were so many violent ­incidents that I can barely recall them all now."

She said he would attack her if she tried to leave the house 'without his permission' and threatened to lock her in the car boot and 'smash her teeth in'.

In one assault last February, James threatened his wife-to-be with a knife after he pulled up in his car as she was leaving the gym. He then admitted having sex with other women but blamed this on Sophie.

Sophie said: “I’d no idea he was ­cheating on me. I denied knowing anything, but he looked livid and just didn’t believe me.

(Image: SWNS)

“He took me upstairs to our bedroom – he was ­raging. He ripped a ­radiator off the wall and chucked it at me, hitting me in the side.

“While I was down he went over to the bed and under the pillow where he kept his meat cleaver and said, ‘You’re going to cause a murder scene’.

“At that point I really thought I’d had it, he was going to kill me. His eyes were not human.

“But just as he was leaning over me with the knife to my throat, the police burst in the door. One of the neighbours called them – they basically caught him red-handed.

(Image: Getty Images/EyeEm)

“I showed the officer with my eyes where my phone was and they took it away as ­evidence. I felt that it was now or never and I think the decision I made then, to come clean about it all, saved my life."

In July 2019 James, of St Ives, Cornwall, pleaded guilty to one charge of coercive and controlling behaviour, three charges of assault by beating and one charge of common assault at his trial in Cambridge Crown Court.

He was sentenced to 34 months in prison and a restraining order that prevents him from visiting St Ives and other areas for 10 years.

Sophie was thankful that the police saved her and she now wants to share her story to help other women find the courage to leave a violent relationship.

"I want other women to know that there is a way out and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel," she added.