A woman thought she was going to die when a man broke into her home and sexually assaulted her.
The woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, had fallen asleep on the sofa while watching TV before waking up to see stranger Benjamin Guiver, 35, kneeling beside her on May 24 this year.
She tried to escape barefoot while screaming ‘help me, help me’, but Mr Guiver caught her by the her hair, punched her and dragged her back inside the property in Goodwick, Pembrokeshire, in Wales.
Once there, Mr Guiver strangled the woman repeatedly smashed her head against a radiator before tearing off her trousers and digitally penetrating her.
The woman was ‘choking’ on her won blood while the attacker tried to strangle her one last time, saying: ‘You’re going blue, I’m going to kill you.’
Fearing she was going to die in the attack that left her severely bleeding and bruised, the woman felt ‘relief’ when her son and partner disturbed the attack by returning home.
Mr Guiver tried to escape through a window, but he was chased down by the woman’s son who ‘didn’t want him to get away after the state I saw my mother in’.
He was also subjected to an attack by Mr Guiver, who punched and choked him, but he managed to call police who arrive just before 10.30pm.
Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Briggs said: ‘She was clearly badly injured, and was incredibly distressed, but at that point we weren’t aware of the extent of the ordeal she had been put through.
‘Our focus was on prioritising her care with the help of paramedics, and getting officers out on the street to find the suspect.’
After arresting Mr Guiver nearby, police discovered he had previously tried entering another home in the area before entering that of his victim.
Today he was jailed for 20 years after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence, assault by penetration and intentional strangulation.
He also pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and intentional strangulation in relation to the male victim.
Mr Guiver’s attack was so brutal it left the woman missing a fingernail and a tooth, with a need for morphine, dental work and dentures in the aftermath.
Now she feels ‘lost, unsafe and on edge’, and a ‘shell’ of a former self, with difficulty returning to work or looking in the mirror.
In a victim impact statement read to court, she said: ‘I feel as though my life has been turned upside down. I no longer feel safe in my own home which is a feeling I have never experienced before.
‘I’ve always been confident and independent, however, that has now been viciously ripped away from me.
‘I want so desperately to go back to some kind of normality with my life, however, I know that what has happened is going to continue to haunt me for the rest of my life.’
Judge Geraint Walters described Mr Guiver, who was previously jailed for 54 weeks in 2022 after assaulting his female partner, as a ‘violent and dangerous’ offender.
Nothing in Mr Guiver’s psychiatric report explains his actions, according to the judge.
Judge Walters said: ‘It’s hard for anybody to imagine a more brutal and terrifying attack within a person’s own home than the case presently before me.
‘She was right to fear that you might kill her because you completely lost all reason and control’ as a result of the drugs and alcohol he had consumed that day.
‘The chances are that she won’t ever completely recover from what you did.’
As well as a prison sentence, the judge imposed an indefinite restraining order banning Mr Guiver from contacting the victims.
He will also be on the sex offender register indefinitely.
After sentencing, DCI Briggs said: ‘The victim in this case has shown immense courage throughout the investigation, and I commend her for that.
‘Suffering such an attack in your own home is unimaginable, and – as she detailed in her statement – has impacted every aspect of her life.
‘Despite this, she has demonstrated her strength of character every step of the way and worked alongside officers to ensure justice prevailed.
‘I would also like to highlight the actions of her relative who intervened during the assault, putting their own safety at risk to ensure further harm was not caused.’
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