Police Officer Crashed Car, Caught Bus to Evade Capture After Choking Girlfriend Unconscious in ‘Jealous Rage’

A British police officer received a 16-year prison sentence on Friday after he strangled and nearly killed his girlfriend who wanted to end the relationship, according to police and local reports. 

James Riley, 28, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, according to a news release from the Greater Manchester Police. 

Police officers responded to a welfare check at a hotel in Manchester in November 2022, discovering the woman “in a life-threatening condition,” the release says. 

Judge Patrick Field, during Riley’s sentencing, detailed the gruesome assault. 

Riely “gripped her throat and strangled her with such force over a significant period that her brain was starved of oxygen,” Field said, according to a report from the BBC.

Emergency responders immediately transported her to a hospital in an induced coma, where she regained consciousness. 

Riley at the time of the incident was not on duty. 

After he choked the woman, he called his family. Then he called an ambulance and fled, “trying to evade capture using several different types of transport to hide his tracks and direction of travel,” police said, all of which was captured by surveillance footage.  

He left the hotel in his car and then intentionally crashed it. Then he tried to get back home by boarding a bus, jumping into a taxi, and hitchhiking. 

Riley was dismissed from his post with the Lancashire Police after an internal investigation. 

“I would like to commend the bravery of the victim who has throughout this case shown immense strength to tell her story,” said Greater Manchester Police Detective Sergeant Heidi Cullum. 

“What happened to her on that night, by someone she should have been able to trust is unthinkable,” Cullum continued. “We hope now she can move on with the rest of her life safe in the knowledge that he cannot commit this act of violence to anyone else whilst behind bars.”

Field reiterated support for the victim, saying during the hearing that the former police officer had become “consumed by uncontrollable anger and a jealous rage" and acted "with murderous intent,” the BBC reported.