THE VICTIM of a man with a history of domestic violence says she could have been killed when he overturned her caravan as she slept inside.
Alexander Brown was jailed for up to ten years after driving a tractor "at high speed" into Carolyn Picton's Elddis caravan at about 1.30am.
She and her fox terrier, Astor, were asleep when it was flipped on its side and damaged so badly it was written off, a court heard.
Ms Picton, a mother of one, who met Brown at work at Beacon Cottage Farm Touring Park, St Agnes, told the West Briton: "It was terrifying, confusing, incomprehensible – just awful.
"It was a miracle I had no physical injuries. I could have been killed, or ended up in a wheelchair.
"Everything was thrown about and smashed.
"I was able to scramble out through a window."
Motionless at her feet as she stood on the upturned caravan, she thought Astor was dead until he eventually moved.
The park owner helped calm her and Brown was arrested, hiding in a nearby field, 12 hours later.
Brown, 33, pleaded guilty to damaging the property being reckless as to whether Ms Picton's life was endangered, and to slashing all the tyres and scratching her Citroën Nemo on October 26 of last year.
It was ten months after Ms Picton ended their "casual" six-month relationship.
At Truro Crown Court, Brown, also of Beacon Drive, St Agnes, was jailed for six years and given a four-year extension period, meaning he will be on licence for that long after release. He had previous convictions for domestic violence assaults.
Ms Picton said they had had "a laugh" and he was an "ordinary bloke" but the relationship had fizzled out and was going no further.
They remained friends after she ended it in January of last year, but he started drinking heavily and began to pester her – knocking on her door and sending "repeated, unwelcomed texts" late at night.
"I was getting an inkling about his past and was in a vulnerable situation, on my own in the empty caravan park in the off-season," she said.
She contacted the police who told Brown to leave her alone.
The next night he wreaked his havoc.
She added: "He was like Dr Jekyll and Mr Alex. There was no way to see it coming. I just want any woman who might come across him to be aware of what he's done. It is a massive relief and I am working my way through it now."
Judge Graham Cottle told the court that Brown was a "danger to any woman he has a relationship with".
A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesman said: "Due to the circumstances under which these crimes were committed, the CPS flagged them as domestic violence and the judge uplifted the sentence from six years to ten to reflect this."
