A 24-year-old man who attempted to strangle a woman in Bury St Edmunds on New Year's Day has been warned he is likely to be jailed when he is sentenced next month.

Recorder Richard Kelly told Harry McMenamin: “You will appreciate that this was an extremely serious incident which absolutely terrified the victim.”

He said the likelihood of a custodial sentence was “very real”.

McMenamin, of Cricks Road, West Row, pleaded not guilty earlier this year to attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to the woman with intent on January 1 this year.

He was due to go trial at Ipswich Crown Court on Monday, September 5, but before a jury was empanelled he pleaded guilty to a less serious charge of assaulting the woman causing her actual bodily harm.

Donal Lawlor, prosecuting, said the plea to a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm was acceptable and he wouldn’t be seeking a trial on the more serious charge.

He said the victim had been in a locked bedroom in the middle of the night when the assault took place and the case involved elements of strangulation.

Mr Lawlor said thankfully the physical injury to the victim wasn’t particularly serious.

Police were called to a flat in Abbeygate Street, in Bury, on January 1 following reports of a disturbance.

McMenamin, who is on conditional bail, will be sentenced on October 20 after a pre-sentence report has been prepared on him.